FAR AWAY FROM HOME

by

nicholas ayoola oladehin

Slow tears drop down my cheeks,

As I roam about in loneliness.

The cold of the scary night next to my soul,

Filters through my hole filled rags.

Goose pimples adorn my once smooth skin,

I resemble a paper filled with glued sand.

I remember the village of my birth,

Where we sat by the oil-lit lamp,

Telling stories into the dead of the night.

Many were days in the flowing stream,

Enticing fishes with our worm decorated hooks.

Mother alone at the fireside,

Aged by the thought of my whereabouts.

My sisters around the big palm tree,

Waiting for me their only friend.

Juliet in a distant land,

Far away from my warm embrace.

In the moonlit night, lonely and quiet,

A sharp pain disturbs my inner being, hunger?

I then remember mother's meals,

Hot and steamy from the black clay pot

My mouth waters, it's time for dinner

My share, far away at home.

What indeed have I achieved,

From my long event-searching walk?

Bruises on my legs, arms and face

Worn-out shoes and a hole-ridden robe

The only things I can call my own.

Here is where I feel a slave,

Unlike home where I'm treated as king.

I hear the trees whistling in the silent night,

Welcoming the arrival of a cold rainy night.

The sharp cold in my tired bones,

Penetrates deep like a desperate virus.

The green frog happily hops about,

Here for it is home, unlike me.

All alone in this thick black night,

Where I sleep with my eyes open wide.

Even though I'm housed within a square mile,

In this habitat, indeed I'm no tenant.

Home yet miles away,

Where I'll rather be and not here.

 *this poem was written 10yrs ago and i lost it online 8yrs ago...now its back HOME!!!