“Ibadan’
running splash of rust
and gold-flung and scattered
among seven hills like broken
China in the sun.”
—John Pepper Clark
Bẹẹrẹ
Four ways to the homes of warriors, the peak of Màpó,
The abandoned palace; they said every Baálẹ̀ has taken palace
To their parlours, Aremo in the dust, Elèkùrọ́ in the gold,
The house of Bower where you can see the city in her majestic brown shades.
Òòpóó, when you get there you will keep all that you love, that the tourist
Will not be transformed into sudden beggar, at Ìbàdàn you have to walk like you own here.
The tag on your head might put you into trouble soon.
Agodi
The then border that has turned into city, terminus without seats,
The Correctional House, a grave of Adélakùn of the era
When you will be taken and your gods cannot do a thing,
They said if you will be in the middle of propaganda once,
You would have to be at Agodi once. The
City of Alli, the great warrior at the border.
Agbowó
Come to elites’ land, take from the wisdom of Ìbàdàn,
The place of Alàkadà, boys seeing the world through the shades of
Solomon, Trenchard the palace of scholarship, the home of Konji
The house of great creatives, Osundare reigns here,
The science you find around is here in Ìbàdàn, if you have eyes you will see,
And ten minutes in this part of the city will made you know the whole world is here
In Ìbàdàn.
Fasasi Abdulrosheed Oladipupo is a Nigerian poet and a Veterinary Medical Student, whose first love is art making. His poems were nominated for the 2021 BOTN and for the 2021 Pushcart Prize. He is an avid reader, who sees poetry in everything, with great interest in storytelling. His works have appeared, or are forthcoming in: Southern Humanity Review, Oxford Review of Books, Tipton Review, Cathexis Northwest Press, South Florida Poetry Journal, Olongo Africa, Roanoke Review, Watershed Review, Panoplyzine, Kissing Dynamite, The Night Heron Barks Review, The Citron Review, Stand Magazine, Louisiana Literature, Obsidian: Literature and Art in the African Diaspora, Welter Journal, Praxis Magazine and elsewhere. Fasasi twits @FasasiDiipo.