AJIUN
Fight until you can no more
And the edge of your sword blunts
Dripping toh toh toh
Not with blood,
But the ego of men who beat their wives
And the greed of the ones who sell their girls
And the perversion of local men, who only know to Can.
Our society auctions the Woman
And every girl-child is some investment
It is the bargainer that decides the price
It is her beauty that tells her worth,
So Mama taught my sisters to paint their faces
To jiggle their butts and call on Kuluso ;
The maker of pointed nipples.
Ajiun
I have fears;
Our society needs a spiritual healing
and its women need a holistic redemption
Cos’ we may sigh ‘Oooh… Aaahh’ in relief;
That shackles are all broken and gone
And your fight is thought to be won
Yet one woman may still persist indoors
Readying herself, like a property
To be fit for the Bazaar.
Ajiun
What do you tell this people?
They say that you ask women to war
But they do not get it
So some have picked cudgels and swords
They do not realize
That Patriarchy is a two headed hydra
And one head that grows in the bosom of women
Feeds the head that grows beneath men
Men and their abnormalities
A head that grows southwards, rising and falling like the Sun.
Ajiun
Tell the warring zealots who have read you wrong
The burning candle does not see beneath its own neck
Education is the getaway from folly
The man is not the woman’s first problem
First within, then without
You say they know this;
But all these painted faces and borrowed butts
Screaming ‘Buy me, Buy me…’ Like Mangoes desperate to leave an evening stall
Tell me that work remains yet undone.
About Author
Oluwafemi Soetan is an author and poet.
A graduate Biochemist and an environmental enthusiast, he is very passionate about creative writing.
His book, Pact of Vengeance can be found on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07W37QBXP. He can be reached on LinkedIn and Instagram.
