Lagos

Èkó àkéte, the promise land of any who so wishes,
Bounded by the ocean of wisdom, “if you no wise for Lagos

You no fit wise for anywhere”, city of hundreds dramas, teaching
Every Jonny the lessons of survival, Èkó will tell you to go

Yet you must not, it will tell you to come testing
Whether you have imbibe her teachings, Èkó wèǹjèlè;

The masquerade in rainbow garbs, here you do not watch,
Here is the city of all and yet it belongs to none,

The yellow taxis, the crazy drivers and their insane conductors,
Ask before you enter, for many clothed beasts

Walk on the streets of Lagos, city of twenty lagoons and thirty three beaches,
City of a thousand and one floods, where you don’t sleep to dream

Like other cities, at Lagos no breakfast, dinners are honking cars,
It was a busy day and a night of terrific traffic, àkàrà senior burger for Lagos,

Every time is for the hustle, Èkó is a city like owl at dusk,
Èkó àkéte, the city of the wise, the masquerade in rainbow hues,

You can’t afford to wait, you can’t watch, yet you must look before you enter,
Everyday na working day, city of a million affluent and a million paupers.

One day I would take my daughter to Èkó, not to live but to witness
The a world we call a city, the fighting passengers,

The hawking teenagers, the snapping sea,
The tired elites, the busy beaches and lagoons with dead fishes and floating plastics

Fasasi Abdulrosheed Oladipupo is a Nigerian poet, & 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.