Osundare, You Won an Award

For Niyi Osundare, the poet and intellectual

By Kole Ade Odutola

Friday, November 25, 2016.

Ọsundare born into Green Lands

raised by fathers who dialogue with soils,

praised by friends from red is freedom road,

Now a settler in the land of more reds than blues

Read by eyes of all hues

We heard well that you have worn the honor that will last

I heard you won an award

I have a word for you

My one may grow to be ten

but I promise nothing will be tense

I heard you won a Doctor of Letters award

as a reward for years of nursing the world

Did they see your large robe of words

and the long list of flaming swords?

The dare at the end of your name

makes you the daring one

The Ọsun that precedes that name

blesses your verses with a flow

In full, Ọsundare gives innocence

to those who deserve it and ẹ̀bi

to those guilty of visiting the poor with ebi 

I heard you won an award

which came from the source

that blessed you with manifold resources

Since you are not a member of the licking league

yours is never a prepared hot sauce to lick

I heard you won an award

In the same year tears defeated laughter

during this time of our new Lords

who met a story-high of defecation

and putrid smell coming from a thousand ailing stomachs

The land smells like stale fart

but the fat rats have taken flight

Leaving the little fries to stage the fights

Did the rich not know they jammed luck

and the poor still in their lock down shacks

I heard you won an award

Without that flood of adverts

subverting our news pages

Instead manifold feet on stages

are dancing to your new tune

awaiting the seal you promised

To the hole in our Earth

Your eyes have become the eyes of our abode

And you will lead me

To spots where the Earth has eyes and rice a plenty

Dare I say I heard you won an award

Complete with Ọsun’s Rod of honor

Is it time to part out Red Sea

And play a part in darkening or red account?

Ọsundare born into Green Lands

Raised by fathers who dialogue with soils,

Praised by friends from red is freedom road,

Now a settler in the land of more reds than blues

Read by eyes of all hues

We heard well that you have worn the honor that will last

Yours is a rich mind

 as rich as Iya Agba's grinding stone

Your tone as deep as Oloolu

 On lookers tell of your feat

and your dancing feet that seem never to touch the earth

You are the earth in the air

The rare breed in the corn field

You are the lid on every pot of wisdom

I have come across in recent time

I carry the cross of alasọdun

As I cross mythical rivers at Iludun

The world is sweet, so are your words

borrow me your ilẹkẹ of deep thoughts

and your alaari of visual acuity 

Please tell the prof/poet not to keep my bribe anywhere

since the keepers of the law

want to make sweepers

of those who swim in money

from behind and send our behinds to the slits of metal bars.

Prof Poet do not keep any new ride

where Magu's eyes can track tyre marks,

drive mine beyond Seme Borders

and my brother takers will do the rest

from the forest of lawlessness

where they now reside.

Image source - https://sueddie.wordpress.com

Kole Ade Odutola is a Florida-based poet, dramatist and academic.