//I TOURED AN ORPHANAGE HOME//
By Fadairo Tesleem
They rushed at me and said,
Tell us uncle, please tell us,
The joy of being owned,
Tell us what’s a home?
I raised my brow to the sky,
But its place was too high,
So, I held the details in a sigh.
The truth of a home is the -
suicide note a frustrated father left
behind after exceeding his debit limits.
& a mother that sold her son to feed
his siblings and abandoned him to
the tartness of his sour fate.
I wrapped all these in a sigh &
said — Home is sweet.
Tell us more uncle,
What’s parental care? What’s a hug?
What’s mother’s warmth embrace &
What’s father’s soothing words?
I breathed heavily this time & said,
They are the most pleasurable things.
“Take us home uncle, all of these, we want to feel”
ion have a home too—i replied.
I'm an orphan too,
We're all orphans picturing
what is it to own a home.
They rushed at me and said,
Tell us uncle, please tell us,
The joy of being owned,
Tell us what’s a home?
I raised my brow to the sky,
But its place was too high,
So, I held the details in a sigh.
The truth of a home is the -
suicide note a frustrated father left
behind after exceeding his debit limits.
& a mother that sold her son to feed
his siblings and abandoned him to
the tartness of his sour fate.
I wrapped all these in a sigh &
said — Home is sweet.
Tell us more uncle,
What’s parental care? What’s a hug?
What’s mother’s warmth embrace &
What’s father’s soothing words?
I breathed heavily this time & said,
They are the most pleasurable things.
“Take us home uncle, all of these, we want to feel”
ion have a home too—i replied.
I'm an orphan too,
We're all orphans picturing
what is it to own a home.
BIO:
Fadairo Tesleem, a student of Adeyemi College of Education Ondo, Ondo state, Nigeria, is an emerging poet that writes from Osun state, Nigeria. He's a poetry coach, a teacher and a literary critic. His works are published or forthcoming in the Issue 1 of Fieryscribe Review Magazine, Pangolin Review & QT literary Magazine. Apart from teaching his students how to weld poetic lines, he loves listening to the arresting voices of (Adekunle Gold and Beautiful Nubia). Twitter: @_Olakunle |