CLEASING NOTES
By Emmanuel Iduma
Saturday, December 04, 2010.
CLEANSING NOTES v.1
When you cleanse me
with (2) quarts
of salvation, I may have
no ready words of thanksgiving;
But these things, too,
shall pass.
I am as a Parambulator
Sometimes too quick
to think goads of sheet
are for latrine pits.
The cleansers are not
goal getters.
They are the ghoul
And ghosts of an
Insipid Fagunwa
I know of waters
long dwelt by Aryan Speculators
Red Armies, CIAs and (24) Elders
of goodwill bombs.
These are the Cleansers.
We have long known.
I have no further claim.
Although reminded
that seeking the thrust
of waterfalls with
parched tongues,
Won’t bring back
Cleansers.
CLEANSING NOTES v.1.1
Love bereft of
Demise tabernacles
Is love
Nonetheless
Unmentioned, though,
Are springs of
Iced manacles
In the dome of the Cleanser,
There are deferential
Missed regimes
Nevertheless.
CLEANSING NOTES v.1.1.1
Three Fool bag
of wishes way
laid the water
side seeking none
other, sanctification
full and free.
Let the redeemed
fish cockcrows
in four batches of denial.
Who are those
who seek denial
on a perforated rostrum
of insect-like possibilities?
Unlike the Apostles
of old Solferino
whose arm being
two bullying
fat-headed cheats,
shits, too numerous
to mention.
We are those yet
unknown with invalid
sanctification robes,
unnumbered place in WOZA.
It’s 2010 and I believe.
Wishes are for
the washing and wishing.
Take it or live it.
CLEANSING NOTES v.2
For Biyi Olusolape
Take these eyes
To the Witch of Endor,
She might have the cure
For perfection
Speaking of such a wonder,
She’s found an immaculate duty,
A soft-sell heart
As such, Aung San Suu Kyi
Purges or
Punishes inactivity,
She’s hung up a family tree.
An unforgiven fallacy
By Ne Win,
Myanmar as an In-Stead
Burma Boys know how
Fast they’ve swam:
It’s an oppressive façade
In sum, these eyes
of U Nu, You knew,
are opt for change
CLEANSING NOTES v.2.1
For Tobi ‘Sammyjay’ Adebowale
Happy are those
Who’ve smelt red
Their taste of Habyarimana
Remains as vivid
As a Mobutu prostrate
1994 – 1997
There lived two cleansings
A Tribe’s and a Man’s
Worlds within spaces
Spaces within worlds
This is the context
Of mousetraps
Interahamwe loyalists
Lack a fundamental obligation
Red does not mean read
Someone knows the felicity
Of being rated R
As it is to this day
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Emmanuel Iduma is studying for his law degrees while working on a novel.