BEJIDE

Bejide

I have always waited for this night,
When I'd confess this love to the one I yearn for,
But....she renounced her name, Bejide And instead, went with the winds to another terrain - a newer terrain.

Hence, I set on this timeless quest–
To unravel the perplexity in ilu agidigbo,
But yet, mystery lurks within answers of mystery,
For her name is a mystery itself – Bejide

The gods are against our union,
For no thinking man weds abiku ,they say—
But this is a timeless passion that mustn't be quenched,
Even if it's a night out of wedlock,
*Bejide* is the chain around a dog's neck,that which mustn't be chewed nor lost.

She is abiku, the market chatters
That heartless child who cackle at her mother's tears,
But whose fault is this pathetic story,
A twist of fate and faith ?

Bejide is the betrothed from the moulder,
But who weds a lass who goes to yonder on her marriage eve ?
Isn't this fate heinous than that of Odewale,
That cursed heir who slew his father and drowned in his mother's inguen?

For after this accelerated drumbeats and amorous dance steps,
She won't see the break of another day..
Before she returns to her haven... Abiiku
For it's her covenant...her oath.

The gods must be questioned,
For even an Abuke's hunchback is reverted,
Not even Bejide embraces this unbecoming fate,
For it's a maiden's dream to live and love.

The fate has been marked by the moulder,
This love has been ordained by the same moulder,
As ijapa never sojourn in the absence of his shell,
So shall I become an undying shadow...
That shadow that fast-tracks your lane...

Call me Yejide,
The one that survives within turbulent winds,
To enroute on a newer terrain, perchance–a better one...
With the unconditional heiress of time, *Bejide*...
She's Abiku but never moulded her fate.

©BALOGUN YUSUF GEMINI.