Ode To Suleja by D.M Aderibigbe

Photo (c) Juju Films

As tiny as you are,
you swallowed six
years of my life,

and digested it,

and shared it ,
with your rocky
children.
Among them is the

Leviathan Zuma Rock,
Always keeps his
Eyes opened to cloister
you from evil,

Yet, he could do nothing
when his younger ones cry
from the punches of
volcanoes,

that has left
my grandmother's
well-founded house
black-eyed.

As tiny as you are,
you sipped the blood
of my teenage years,
and shared it with;

the dry and flowing rivers,
the water-less and
water-filled wells,
the brut and watered streams,

the harsh and gentle sun,
the violent and unflappable
rainfall,
the grey and green grasses,
that make up your
teeter-totter
personality.

As tiny as you are,
you stole six years of
my mother's familiarity,
and shared it

with your peopled market,
the fence-less schools,
the hut-governed villages,
and the
mud-clothed footpath.

As tiny as you are,
You stole six years of
my siblings' understanding,
and shared it with

the scruffy nippers,
the dishevelled youths,
the moth-eaten aged,
and unforgettable peers.

As tiny as you are.
you stole six years
of my experience,
and shared it with

my sweet past,
my sweeter present,
and a sweetest future.

As tiny as you are,
you clothed my teenage years’
secrets.