Tolu Daniel


Tolu Daniel

THE LAMENTATIONS

I sigh
With a white mother tongue for a black father land
I sigh
For a country with walls where abduction never ends
I sigh
For a king who misinterpretes activism as militancy
Such is nothing but a slave
Or a child who is of hate-speeches afraid
I sigh
And sing woe to the land whose king a child remains


I sigh
For a system that judges creativity to be craziness
Imprisoning men for their non-conventional perspectives
And we all with unveiled faces and unchained reasoning
Looking down from that 'prison’
At the left-side of Iyaba, wondering:
“is the system in her right senses?”


I sigh
For religion has now become the brand name for real talk
Why do you think that my poems are religious?
Because they're garnised with mentions of 'Jesus’?
When an average poet infuses Fela into his poetry
How different does that sound from mine?
Isn’t Fela an IDOL, and has he no SHRINE?


I sigh
Because a real God has been misdefined and mystefied by religious views
Unidentified and overlooked by religious prudes
A God above, who of a relationship with man deprived
Came down in human flesh only to realize
That man was no where to be found below
They were all in-between
Struggling on incompetent ladders of religious creeds

Tolu Daniel

MY PEN CRIES AND THE INK DRIES – (worthy of mention too)

On the surface of a land where milk and honey should flow

But its people suffer from the scarcity of petrol.


And joy sleeps as the land slips
Into the brink of a war that totally ravages a nation
A clash of ethnicity, religion, and an unanswered national question

Is Niger-Area just a collage of people-groups incompatible and
hurriedly married in a union doomed to fail?

Or is she an entity with a destiny for greater things whose challenges
will come to pass and whose present sufferings will fade?


My pen shifts as my thoughts drift

I find my solace from the Middle-east: "the greatest story ever told"
Where way back in the first century, a Man died to save our souls

So joy awakens as my mind is taken
For when the human race fell into suffering and pain
Jesus the Son of God came down to share likewise in the same
For us all, He went through the pains of earth and the horrors of hell
But His suffering and death is not the end of the story we tell
For at the end, Jesus did not just suffer and die, He is risen
And at the end, Nigeria does not just suffer and smile, she is risen

My pen tried to defy the Man crucified
But when I found that He rose in the midst of five hundred witnesses
Wait; FIVE HUNDRED witnesses? my doubts, they don't persist

Now joy stands upon this land
For regardless of your culture, background or religion
Jesus died for every man in all continents and every region
So, if between terrorism in the North and secession from the East,
Naija is bleeding
We will remember that between the crucifix and the heavenlies, the
human race is risen
And even if the national problems be risen like the fuel price
The Eagle becomes a Phoenix, out from the ashes, saying: "Still, I rise"

My pen speaks to end this piece:
Let every Nigerian from the four cardinal points look up to Him
For He gathers His descendants from the West, and brings them from the East
Saying to the North "Give them up!"
And to the South "Do not keep them back"
Do not hold them back, He says
"Let her come with her Hijab and yet come taste of the rugged Cross,
that's where her true dignity hides
Let them come with their Talismans and yet grip on the rugged Cross,
that's where the true power really lies
The Name of Jesus remains the same on every tongue regardless of the
language we come speaking
For whether Jesus is Yisa, Chukwu or Jesu; by His name Nigeria is risen!

Tolu Daniel

A MISEDUCATION ON GOODNESS
Betrayers come with kisses
Home-wreckers come with striptease
Brutus stabbing from behind
A big smile, veiling vile
Thoughts, emotions and motives
Intentions like locomotives
Moving gradually
Slowly evolving
Natura non falcit suntum
Evil human nature truly doesn’t jump

"No man is good!"
I speak not as a feminist
A statement from a Man is what I repeat
For when Jesus said “no man is good"
Did He mean that He isn't good?
Or, that He isn't a man;
For to be good is to be loving
But Love is not an action, it's a Person
And no such person is a man
Therefore, Love is probably a woman

But not just any woman
Love is the woman you cheat on
And beat on in your all-week-sad drunkenness
Who has no iota of desire to stab you in your drunk-sleep-stark- naked mess
Such love is not all women
And not all women are that loving
Thus, I chew once again the cud of my words
Love can also be a man
Love is the man who died for his bride right before the wedding night
So, what gender is Love? Maybe Hermaphrodite!

Love is the Person that suffers long and suffers wrong
Without claiming damages in federal court
A person that evil prods and daily pokes
But still remains calm, collected and unprovoked
A person who bears all things, in joy unyeilding
Knowing it's just another political smooth-talk, but keeps believing
Love is not that blind lady groping around reading your deceptive braille lyrics
She sees your faults, she just ignores, and sees a better you beyond the gimmicks
Love is the beauty that fell in love with a beast in these guys
Love is the Man Jesus who died for a world that refused to be His wife

He stood against the seemingly good men of His region
Men who covered their own sins in long robes of religion,
Long prayers and selfish empty good deeds
Men whose hands are quick to cast stones at women caught in acts of adultery.
Hang your stones for a while, look and you will see
That the man whom she did 'it' with is roaming free
Justice belongs not in the hands of men such as this
Men who excuse the man in the mirror but accuse the woman on the T.V screen
Perverted men can never execute true justice
For they can only see through perverted lenses


So, Love is neither a man nor a woman,
Love is God
But not just any 'God’
Love is the God that is too righteous to ignore sins
Yet too merciful to punish the sinners
That kind of God revealed to us in the Man Jesus
“For vengeance is Mine” says the Lord
But when it was time to take vengeance
He took it upon Himself and no one else
Yes, to be good is to love, like the Man we call God


Yet, not a religious God-
The one you can manipulate, twist and turn with your seemingly good deeds
For Love looks into the heart, beyond your acts, down to your motives.
An activist once gave his body to be burnt for the people
We idolize him unaware he was just trying to be a hero
What if the condemned robber did it just to feed his starving family?
What if Jack died for Rose just so he could star in Titanic's story?
What if the terrorist was simply protecting his homeland from imperialists?
So, next time you judge, don’t be so quick to conclude,
There is more to being good than just doing good

Tolu Daniel ©


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