Olorun Onile Oke

Olorun Onile Oke
God, the stronghold
In a world full of threats
I call you my Abo Oke
The one and only high fortress

The lord my eternal refuge,
Olu ibi Isadi
Your everlasting arms O Tobi Ju

With it you thrusted
Out my enemies from before me,
You silenced the voices That cried out threats

The threats that threatened to break all hell loose until my back hits the ground

You stood your ground In battle until their strongholds did rattle,
Mighty man in battle

Jagun jagun segun
You broke the gates of brass and cut the bars of iron in asunder

At the sound of my cry,
You caused the foundations of the hills to move,

You heard my voice
And the earth trembled,
You kissed away the tears from off my temple

Apata ayeraye,
The rock of ages,
My help,
In ages past,
You bowed down the heavens and came down

And when the thick darkness surrounding me saw you,
It took flight

My high fortress,
Because I have you I don’t even have to fight.

Ebubechi
©2025

Turns



A lot is cast
Many a times, wisdom proclaims
Life na tumbo tumbo
one way or another
The wheel spins to everyone’s direction
One or two a time

The sages said
“A good turn deserves another”
The owner of ages said
“Do good, even unto your enemies”
One way or another
The wheels spins to everyone’s direction
One or two a time

Games we played
Children in the streets
Home wasn’t far away
And the lessons out there
Didn’t make us fall short
We learnt to understand
The lot will one way or another
Fall on every player
The mix of pride and grief
When the wheel spins to one’s direction

One is the victor
Another the victim
Negotiating the future
To taste the sweetness of revenge
Or the pride of forgiveness
For when the lot is in favour
But before then, don’t tempt the gods
Your fears will betray you
And when the wheels spins
To one or two a time
Be sure to have The Lord as your lot


Pearlythoughtz
© 2022

Fear

Fear was my challenge,
It was the beast that stared at my dreams,
And I stared back at it with fury,
With no beauty in my eyes,
Fear was a beast but I was no beauty.

Fear tried to prey on my purpose,
It threaten all of my existence,
But I found Confidence in him who for Ages existed,
I found Christ.
He made a Lioness with an intimidating aura of self worth.

Princess Pirinye
©2021

A chip of ice- for mum

Your teardrops would battle fiercely
From the corners of your eyes
They would force their way through
The rigid, unyielding valley of your eyelids
And when they fell
They would stab your cheeks, twist your nose
And sting the recesses of your jaw

Yet when they fell,
They were like the sudden rain that mocked the Sahara
Like the mango tree growing in the Arctic
They were a wonder, and so were you.
For you loved me
Like icy cold, angry waters hammering on rocks
Falling

From unbelievable heights, through the distance between us
Screaming, raging and filled with the frustration
That your decades had fed you
As you crisscrossed naked open seas, flogged by the sun
And through lush green forests
With dwindling mud tracks and filthy streams
Falling

Defying boulders and meanders that had beaten you into thin ice
And kept you on your tiptoes with your back bent
Trying to meet my needs
Through cold, dark nights when you slept
With the biting in your belly
With the uncertainty of worry
Yet you flowed, silent and rapid
Falling,

Through the secrets you swallowed as you went by
And the hurts which never made you cry
And the sorrows you fought to bring forth life
With a charming smile on your face.
You shamed the hardness
That shaped your life
And you crashed against my rocky heart
With the weight of ages of ice
You flogged me, you tore me, you tested me
In my blindness, you were my foe
But I have received the warmth sparked
By the slap of your coldness
And I have melted in love
Your love is hidden in my heart of ice

Ndubuisi Chioma J
© 2019

Barren Mother

I have an empty well of a belly.
My womb has known nothing but dying blood all my living years.
I have thought of no one but myself,
Fed no one but myself,
Placed no one before myself,
How do I have a womb except it was made to bear another, and yet
I have no idea what it means to pour a part of myself into another.
“A breast feeding mother?”
That’s a foreign name to me.
“A bread winning father?”
Who dares call me?
I am my own hero,
My own salt,
My own light in a shady place,
Come with me and I’ll lead you into the darkness.
I’d snuff the life out of my light because I do not want to share it.
I’m an evil already happening,
A menace waiting to be uncovered.
My tactics are new everyday
Yet my mind is old.
I am a dirty, dirty soul with a clogged up heart and a rigid body.

This is why I have come before the Rock of Ages,
Before The fire that purifies without consuming to ashes.
My tears produce more salt now than I have ever thought to produce.
I do not know when I ever took lessons from the ocean
But my ill will like waves come crushing over me.
I am caught up in my own dirt web,
Spun in my own fear.
I have come to you as a barren womb in need for a child.
I was born to be mother, now may I know a child?
I have come as a fruitless tree in its season.
As hungry fire,
I’m desperate.
As a docile branch,
I submit.
I accept defeat.
Let your rains fall on this arid land again, Lord.
I admit nothing was ever my own;
As I am left with nothing now I am reminded where I come from.
Give me one child, Yahweh ‘tis All I ask.
Surprise the quick-to-conclude with Your quick-to-deliver.
Let them know when their calling-me-barren tongues call me mother,
Let them know from every side of the flipping coin earth,
That You make the Barren Mother.

Adaobi Chiemelu
(c) 2018