ONESIMUS

That you might receive him forever, no longer as a slave—a beloved brother… Philemon 1: 15-16

I’m a fugitive fleeing from punishment
A slave mortgaging with my destiny
Transecting my soul with transgression

A man finds me whose father
sentenced to death two thousand years ago
Says his name is Grace and he won’t let me go


Wraps warm hands around me
till his love fills me to overflow
Like rainwater filling a cistern

I died“, he says but now I live forever
And if you let me, I can wipe away your past too, forever.”

Ayooluwa Olasupo Ìmísí
©2021

Heal

I see you, you know?
The smile carved out of thorns,
Thorns gradually being removed from your heart;
You gave it out, and it was returned broken,
Yet, you find a place in your heart,
A broken piece, to reflect happiness to the people around,

I see you, you know?
The warmth and closure,
Sprouting from the seed of forgiveness,
It’s never easy to walk in these shoes;
He enveloped kisses, you thought it was love but it was bought with 30 pieces of silver,
Little did he know he was selling you,
To the place of destiny,
Always let your warmth radiate love; it’s the sun’s energy

I see you, you know,
Learning how to walk again,
How to break down your doors,
The very ones you built when he broke you;
A thousand pieces of a being,
Learning how to see trust in actions,
Every tongue that comes bearing gifts of love;
You view from a defective view,
Your heart has been taught to see lies in all words,
Let love in, yes broken, but you still paint beautiful pictures…

That’s how I see you, you know,
An artist carving smiles, on people’s faces,
You are well skilled in teaching rhythms,
when you walk by, our heads moves to the rhythm of your body,
Your tenacity can only compare with the greats,
No doubt you are great!
And mostly, I love your conversation with God,
I imagine the words you will speak to Him about your man!

Dear baby girl,
Learn to let God lead you to the person you will love,
You are just broken,
Remember, broken crayons still paint beautifully,
You are beautiful, smart, sexy and godly,
You are every man’s dream!
Give love a chance, only then can you heal completely

– Adeleye Olaoye
(c) 2021

Enough

“Madam, would you like anything else?”

No.

I’ve. Had. Enough.

I’m done with this junk you serve on a platter
This sorry excuse of a diet
That I swallow,
To convince myself that I’m eating
A 5 second prayer, one verse of scripture
To convince myself that I’m growing…
I’m sick of it!

I’m tired of your new recipes
Food that feeds on me.
Superficial Christianity with a dash of religion,
Truth served rare with ego stuffings.
Glamorized gospels that are far from good news
leaving me bloated, constipated
full of myself and void of Him.

And what’s with the drinks?
Sweet to taste, but leaves an unquenchable thirst
words promising but empty
incapable of answering life’s burning questions
Don’t you serve Living Water??

And why is your food so costly?
your charges are outrageous!
My relationship with God, My peace, My joy, My destiny is too high a price.

So I’m sorry Mediocre Christianity
I won’t be having any more.
I’ve. Had. Enough.

Damaris Akhigbe
(C) 2020

Evolve

Man.
Lord of the earth, unknowing.
Born Heroes; living victims.
Black Panthers scared shitless.
Superintendents gone puny.
Sad.

Man.
So primitive. So common. Like dirt.
As is the sunrise.
Aye, it doesn’t make him, nor the sunrise,
Any less a miracle; any less a beauty.
But then…

Man.
“Ye are Gods,” I heard Him say.
Creators, made He you.
But it’s sad.
You only live as pawns on a chessboard.
And you die like mere scum of the earth.
Who knew the hashtag was truth, after all.
Men are scum, indeed.

Man.
Oh, man.
Pity! PITY!
I mean, you share a last name with Deity!
With Yahweh Himself!
Oh, that you knew thyself!
And, that, to thy sweet self, you be true.

Man.
Do not your dreams whisper to you
The destiny of your race?
Do not your superheroes, your folklores, your movies
Point towards mastery?
And power?
And love?

Man.
Does not your genius, your spirit
Nudge you ever so silently
To rule from the top of the rainbow?
To conquer the sky you’ve agreed is your limit?

Who has deceived you?
Oh, man!
“Evolve, man!
Evolve!”
Eternity screams.
Immortality beckons.

But no. You’ll read this poem, this call,
And just move on.
Sadly.
Oh!
Man!

Nonso John
© 2019

CHRONICLES OF A DROWNING MIND

Dead zone
Broken soul
Scary shadows
Those are rhythms of a poor old kid
Whose ways never pleased anyone, not even herself.

No hope
Buried grace
Weak for the race
Those are top list words recorded in the word billboard of her mind
She used to be of the royal line
But now goodness turned to lime
She sees God’s intentions as the least
Her faith so rusty and loosen like an abandoned screw
There she becomes a beast that feast with the devil.

Records of heart failures
Impotent to believe the best inside
Drenched with the thoughts of discovery
Draining in the memory lane of no understanding
Tears from the sole of the heart dripping down like flood yet none sees these flood of questions buried in tears

Travelling alone in travail… I weep in smiles…
Because in my green days have I grown grey because am yet to discover the me in me

In silenced smiles I’m drown in fears because my mind has become aged in thoughts

Hold my weeping mind
Embrace my tears in warmth,
Caress me with words of rescue
Carry me in the wings of warmth understanding
For I drown in silence

Oh…save me from this destiny device
For I transit into the groove of eternity
My powerhouse drowns
I plead for restoration if that exist
I seek for redemption for this battle is beyond me

Nonye
The Alchemist
© 2019

THE ETHNIC WAR OF INNER VOICES WITHIN MAN

Hmmm…Have you walked down this lane?
The lane of the warring voices embedded in the mind?
Where voices rage war in the soft bones of your mind,
Over choices and decisions,
Voices sounding right under the spell of imaginative confusion,
Wrong when castrated of the spell,
Where reasoning becomes afraid to reason,
Cos even in the cause of reasoning choices coated in capsules of poison seize thy taste of choice,
Confused over nothing yet confused over everything,

Drowned in the ocean of counterfeited uncertified voices draining broken pieces of unfulfilled dreams sketched out,
These voices keep on speaking,
That the only surviving cartilage in the brain of my head has been ruptured
Unseen yet powerful and influential voices, trapped in myriads of scorn,
This is an inbuilt ethnic war,
Who can save me from this destiny device,
Where voices echo unraveled solutions and complicated ideas to same thing,
Which do my being become a slave to?

Rains of confusion has embarked on a rescue journey at the central park of my head,
Taking rest at the hallucinated desolate field of lost,
The sweet and gentle voice of procrastination has embalmed its statue in me and silenced my voice of reason placing it in the solitudinal grave of eternity,

I wear smiles wrinkled on the inside,
Spraying the perfume of faded smile to avoid panel of questioning,
Inner pimples has eaten deep my dimpled mind of rest,
Hiding under the cloaky face care of MARY KAY
To bring out the dimples amidst the pimpled troubled mind,

Which voice do I cling to?
The sugar coated diabetic voice or the fading- like silent voice embedded with thorns and water logged pathway to destiny,

OH!!! OH
War of voices within…
My soul has become aged at the peak of my youthful mind,
Let me think and make one… my permanent abode for a gloomy doom await the confused mind making choices,
Follow me on my journey but with cautioned silence.

Kanu Nonye

© 2018

DESTINY-ATION 4

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THE JOURNEY

So Abram departed, as the Lord had spoken unto him
Genesis 12:4

So I know you want to fulfil destiny. I hear all the amazing things God has told you, the promises, the plans, the strategies and yet I’m wondering

“Why on earth are you sitting on all of this, acting like you’ve got no place to go? I mean few minutes ago, one would think you had no clue what the word destiny even meant”.

Now how on earth do we end up here?
Sure too many reasonable and unreasonable reasons would pop up but hey I’m not interested in that, there’s not enough time to discuss that. Get up and get going!
Abram heard the call and I tell you, he didn’t wait till months later or till he saved up enough capital for this travelling business; He just up and went.

“Wait up now dude, are you saying we should not prepare?”

Ummm. YES. Seriously, I know it sounds kinda unreasonable but better put I’m saying the moment you get instructions you should start acting on them. I tell you if Abram had spent a day between God’s speaking and take-off, any passer-by would only have to see Abram to know he was about to travel.

Look like where you’re going

I’ll tell you what delays people into ever achieving their dreams: EXCUSES (and I tell you this from first-hand experience). Now many people would associate excuses with laziness but in reality, excuses are basically anything reasonable and unreasonable, commendable and otherwise that stops you from getting results.
So basically if you’re ever going to look for an excuse you’re going to find one. Always. If you’re still wondering what your sustenance would be I’ll tell you Abram’s, he went based on the word from the Lord. So it’s simple…

GO ON THE WORD…it never fails.

And please, please, please, start NOW, not tomorrow, not next week, not when you have a partner, NOW…NOW…NOW! Seriously, right this moment, NOW! Don’t wait another second, start the journey to your destiny. The journey of a thousand miles they say starts with a step. Make that step today.

Read on… its totally gonna be worth it!