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.