THIS SECOND COMING...

This morning woke us up
With the strident cacophony of our old friend
The brilliant rogue of this helpless jungle
Singing the coming rites of new power play
In constant appellation to the kindest kindred casts
Of this age-long jilted jungle

Here comes the gallant return of that juggler
Glowing like a peacock prince in his regal attire
And buried in his reckoning steps
To the ritual dance of the throbbing Bàtǎ drum
Chiming sonorously towards the South, East, North
And the Western shrines of our jungle’s Kingmakers
To welcome him home again
Into the sacred palace
In this Second Season of Ritual Acrimony
So that he can strip off completely
His evil plots; to prove his acclaimed ingenuity
And launch his final onslaught
Upon our sacred honours; then
Whips us down to earth
This Second Coming…

Let us all make smooth the path
Fellow Kinsmen!
For the gallant return of this glamorous liar
So that we can forever groan in pain
Under the deadly claws of the whip
Of this fearless treachery burglar
As dreaded more than the harvest
Of the last ferocious festival

Let us rise up in standing ovation
And lead him majestically to the Royal Chair
Let us again crown
And make him our King!
Let him wear the Royal Shoes
And put in his neck, the Royal Beads
Let us place in his hands
The Majestic Horsetail
Let us lay before him
All the ritual ingredients
In sacrifices to the Royal Gods
To make for our final funeral rites
In this Second Season of Ritual Acrimony
Let us clear the thorny path
For the return of this friendly foe
So that we can go on moaning…
Howling…and wail…in endless labour
While he sits in Aso Palace
Amidst mass stolen affluents
With his two gap-teeth going wild
In endless laughter; and mock us
To our Death
This Second Coming…

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To Mavis My Love!

“When someone you love,

Becomes a Memory…the

Memory becomes a treasure,

For the love of that person,

You will love that person for

The rest of your life…”

Mavis was an 18 years old African-American girl who relocated with her tourist parent to Lagos Nigeria in June1991, when she was about 16 years old. I was in S.S. 2 at Ejigbo High School, Ejigbo Lagos. Mavis joined us in Commercial Class when I was only 19 years old.

Mavis was a highly matured young girl who had had much more experience than most women crammed into a lifetime. She was loved and respected by everybody including all the tutors. Although, she was only seventeen, she was intelligent, emotionally matured, sensitive, brilliant and socially appealing. She was also a very pretty girl with a very agile and athletic stature.

I had not taken notice of Mavis attractiveness for almost three months. But when we became friends and very fond of each other, I began to see her in a different light. I remember we were both very funny kind as we used to tease each other. Every little thing we would make jest of. We do and share things together and also go to the school library together to read and share ideas with each other.

Before Mavis and I became close, I remember one afternoon when the weather was so hot. We were in the Mathematics class and I was tired and reckless. My mind was completely out of the class and the only thing I was busy with was steering endlessly at Mavis where she was sitting. I noticed her mind wasn’t in the class either and throughout the whole session in the class that day, Mavis and I were secretly stealing a look at each other, and you know when two people look searchingly into each other’s eyes, emotions are heightened and the relationship tipped towards greater intimacy. At a point, we would smile at each other and put our eyes away. I was taken aback and shaking when Mavis confidently came directly towards me after the class and said “Hi, ‘am Mavis Baby Arthur…I know you are…King…King of Tomorrow, right?”. I was speechless and didn’t know what to do or say. I only nodded my head in affirmation because I was so nervous and that was because I had never experienced anything like that in my life. But I was still happy that I had such a pretty and brilliant girl as a friend. The most interesting thing was that I couldn’t believe that I could have a foreigner as a friend, an American for that matter. For the first time in my life, I felt so important. It was like a Miracle. There were butterflies in my stomach!

As the months rolled by, Mavis and I fell passionately in love. It was so strange for many people to believe that two young lads like us could feel what adults felt for one another. Even, my parents found it very difficult to comprehend, but Mavis parents did understood and they would never do anything to hurt her feelings. I was so glad about this and from that moment on, I began to believe in myself and I really owed that to Mavis. Mavis taught me so many things and opened my eyes to the world. From Mavis, I learned to develop and grow mentally, emotionally, socially and intellectually. She taught me how to think like a grown-up man. She was so kind, caring, loving and very romantic. She was so blunt, honest and straightforward. She taught me how to love and how to do that genuinely. She showed me the meaning of true love because Mavis loved me sincerely with all her heart. She loved me unconditionally in spite of what or who I was or where I was from. The chemistry between us was so strong that we had to promise each other that we would have a lifetime together as husband and wife after we are both done with our higher education. Every time, my grey spirit was always yearning in desire to see Mavis, hold and love her with an Angel’s passion beyond the utmost bound of human thought, seeking a newer world with her and sailing beyond the sunset and the baths of all the western stars until my last breath. Each passing day, I was always full of joy…but Alas!...Joy has a slender body that breaks too soon, for today, my Mavis has now become my MEMORY.

Mavis later traveled back to the U.S. The day she traveled was the last time that I ever saw Mavis. She said she would keep in touch and later come back for me. But since that moment on, I knew I had lost Mavis for the rest of my life. It was so painful though, I later realized that it was important I had to move on with my life.

Below is a copy of the letter written to Mavis published in the Daily Times Newspaper in 1993 tittled…”To Mavis My Love!”

This is for you (Mavis), the true and genuine love of my life. I hope you will have fortunate chance to read this wherever you may be. I’d be missing you for the rest of my life!

I remember you made me to realize

That it is only once in a lifetime…

But now I know, it does happen often

In our entire life when we sleep and wake

Up one day to discover that what we cherish

Most in our lives just disappear and gone forever!

How can I face the world alone now Mavis?

Oh no…! I’m missing you now. Poor me!

Though I know I’d be missing you forever…but

How?…how I wish you were here now…coz

I doubt if I’d ever live to see a true friend like you.

I also remember one of those beautiful days

We spent together here in Nigeria. When I was

Down, I remember you once asked me why do

I feel everything is against me? I remember you

Always tell me it was not as bad as I thought…

Mavis, with your magnetic power of persuasion,

I remember you once told me that it was

Just little endurance that I needed. I could

Recall that in your warm hands during those

Wonderful and splendid moments, you charged

Me to learn from old, experienced and successful

People. To listen to them…that I would discover

That it is the little endurance that they had that

Kept them going through turbulent storms. That

If things were ever hard for me, that what I

Needed was to try to endure, which I did…I

Remember you told me that endurance was the best

Weapon against difficulties.

Mavis, all these I remembered and tried to do

But I am so sorry I can’t go on now…How

Can I?...when I had loved you with all my heart

And suddenly out of the blue…I woke up that

Morning to find my gentle and helpless heart

Full of your love now broken apart…Oh!...

The agony is too much for me to bear…the

Pain is too hard for me to conceive…I am

Dying helplessly…I don’t know what to do

With my life anymore Mavis!

When you told me you were leaving…that

You had to go coz your parent needed to

Relocate back to the United States. That you

Had no choice but to leave. Your words drove

Me crazy, it caused me anguish to think that

The beautiful dreams I had had will no longer

Be mine…the idea of it poisoned my life…

Now my life was gradually turning into hell…

Every moment, I pinned for you…I ached for you…

But why Mavis?...why do things like this happen?

Why are the most beautiful moments in life over

In the flash of a moment?

I know without you…I fear for my life. I am dying

A little everyday…this is what I feel…and that is

Why I hate my life now…that day was one morning

I can never forget. There was brightness all around.

But for me, it was dark all around. I could not see a thing.

I wonder why people say love is pure…that those who

Love find God?...I wonder what path I had suddenly

Treaded?...what is this love all about?

An unsolved mystery

Whose joy it is? And

Whose ruin is it?

Whose life is it? And

Whose death?

Why? Why Mavis do you have to do this to me?

I have always loved you so much and will always

Do even if I don’t get to see you again. I really missed

You a lot amidst of the pain and agony that enveloped

Me right this moment. I am especially missing your

Wonderful and beautiful smile I had always seen in

Your face, but until I finally see someone else who

Can prove to possess your magnificent qualities,

Your love will continue to ring like a pendulum in

My memory for the rest of my life.

Goodbye Mavis!

Your love always,

King of Tomorrow.

Although I have moved on with my life today without Mavis being around…but the mere memories of those days of missing Mavis still brings me out in cold sweat.

MEMORIES…

I’ve never uncovered through the passages of time,
Why my wandering thought refused to find a rhyme,
With many realities of life since my prime,
Not even when I finally discovered myself to be a clime.

I’ve locked horn together through history with lingering memories,
To unravel why our lives are inevitably curled around strange mysteries,
Oh! The mystical memories of onsavouring the genesis of social maladies,
Still; memories, which come and go, as nightingales, full of soothing melodies.

I’ve wandered in the wilderness of my lustful thoughts,
Crossing through painful moments of turbulent drought,
Which WE weary sons of helpless but suffering mortals are caught,
Deep in the cold dungeon of THEIR plot.

I’ve relived from the romantic room of my passionate breast,
Great vision of the birth-time of my ageing quest,
When sufferings’n’sorrows, hostilities’n’hatred shall pass beyond to rest,
For beautiful and wonderful memories, once more to gain, eternal conquest.

I’ve finally arrived from the journey through “THE COLD MOONS”,
Where the “WHEELS” of fate betray life too soon,
With new memories of hope, love, peace’n’tranquility, forever clung to heart,
As Oak-Tree does, to the warmth embrace of mother earth.