WHAT ARE POEMS?

A poem is a modern day sermon I don’t expect to be ignored

And what is the use if my poem makes no meaning to the people who read it

What is the essence if I let them roam in a field of confusion after finding the compass of my words?

What are poems if not the psalms of King David finding solace in the warmth of Solomon’s Songs?

If not proverbs running through the tracks of our minds

As they relay messages with interpretations that lie only on the Joseph placed tongues of the aged

What are poems?

If not the blankets where in lies my mother’s smiles and mummy Topi’s laughter

If not daddy’s correction fluid of a hand presented in disguised disaster

If not stretch marks cliff diving in the lake of my mother’s skin reminding my insomniac brain of the elasticity of her kindness

What are poems?

If not the visible ladder between God and man

If not conversational text messages defined as prayers between divinity and humanity

What are poems?

If not granny’s advice placed as stairways to her son’s greatness

If not a seductive piece of yam placed side by side with red oil

If not trees blown by autumn breeze visiting the pores of my flesh

What are poems if not Africa?

If not diverse dialects dispersed like seeds on the taste buds of the black man

What are poems if not Mary’s beauty?

If not a baby born in a manger sent to dispose of my iniquities like they were rightfully HIS

If not pictures and music

If not the disabled suffering and smiling in the comfort of a summer sun

If not rain that makes the living run like conscious lunatics searching for shelter in the fabric walls of umbrellas, cocoyam leaves and waterproofs serving the purpose of a shower cap

If not paintings

What are poems?

If not the makeup for our deficiencies

If not the fillers to our hollow existence

If not concealers to our flaws

If not the songs sung by the Israelites by the river of Babylon?