HE CHOSE TO DIE

He Chose To Die

I still weep for my brother
even when he chose to die.

We would have saved him,
but he chose to be a reckless being
that ended like unrecyclable trash in a bin.

Mother always warned him
against plugging his ears with
loud music that beats on his eardrums
like the bang on the door of a debtor.

Father sat him down often
to share with him stories of
deaf and dumb victims in the hospital,
but no, my brother turned deaf ears
like he'll always do when I asked
him to help with a maths problem.

I'll personally remind him
how he shouts louder than
Mama Ologi in the morning
as he struggles to hear his own
voice often when he talked.

But my brother always put
his choices above our caring advice.

Yesterday,
as the sun moves to set wearily,
my brother dashed out of the house
after an heated argument with mother and plugged his ear with loud music as though to shut the world out and shut the himself out of the world.

He has moved only fifteen steps
away from home when
I shouted on top of my voice
to call his attention to an oncoming vehicle
as he made to cross the road,
but he couldn't hear me.

I would have written this poem
telling how much I loved my brother
and how much he gave a listening ear to me,
but he chose to be deaf
long before he became dumb enough
to choose to die,
what could I have done.

©Shomade Abdulazeez.

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