911

It was our fond name

Of the Make of the 100 capacity

Metal coffin transport

That carried us to school

Many perched on its unhinged metal doors

Rickety. Rusty. Smelly. Molue

Most of the body barely there

It was the code name

For classmates in secondary

The ones that came after everybody

And left before any of us do

An hour after teachings begins, out at lunch time

Dusty. Rustic. Uniforms different

Students, they barely were

Then, the 9th month as the 2 towers stood

Missing flights diverted of their purpose

Terror created screams in balls of flame

Lives engulfed by hate and passion

One then the other. Down. Bodies fell

Metal. Glass. concrete. Planes.

On the 11th day. Towers no more here

-Written in 2014

COMFORTING THOUGHTS


I jump off the plane

Feel the rush of air on my face at thousands of feet above ground.

Finally visited my father in the home I had rejected

I got that dress made. it came out lovely.

I read the scriptures again...and saw the true message I had missed

Wrestle with a tiger

Write a 500 page book

Champion a cause for millions. Raise millions

In weeks, instead of a year

It’s a lovely view from Mount Everest.

I am fulfilling a bucketful list

Made at the insistence of a finality

Diagnosed without options.

Perhaps when divested of the fear of an end

Woken from the living nightmare of mortality

When the day is no longer distant but sure

And transition is only weeks, days away

When the finality is accepted

When death becomes mate

Perhaps then, we can rise

Above that tugging survival instinct

Above that hopeless drive to tug the rope of existence

And then truly live

In Nature's will

Perhaps…

Or it’s just the comforting thoughts

 Of a dying woman.

Buy my artworks as prints and merchandise here!

The thing about love is, you never ask for it...

It comes when it pleases and goes when it wishes. It respects nothing and no one. It stays even when you don't want it to. It goes even if you try hard to make it stay. You don't control it but it controls you. Your thoughts, actions, plans, goals, desires, time, sleep and your health.

One wonders why such an emotion that is neither created nor destroyed can be so overwhelming. Can you be held responsible for how and who you fall in love with? Fall. The very word connotes accident. An unintentional happening. Totally out of your control.

And when you love someone, any one, its a beautiful feeling...that hurts.

The craving, longing, desire for the time, attention, care, smile, words and approval of the loved one that only seems to be sated when the loved one is present. Only for it to start over again. Worse than before.

The heart aches for the loved one. An ache that only they can soothe. But the soothing only increases the ache. You wish you don't feel that way and pray the feeling never goes away in the same breath. You wish it doesn't control you life so much but can not imagine life without it.

When you are in love with someone, you give them an advantage over others...to hurt you more. The things they did that never mattered or hurt you before, now do. You give them the greater opportunity to break your heart. You plan your life around them. Build for them an image of perfection. You see little or no flaws. The ones you see are easily overlooked. After all, what's a little flaw compared to them being with you? You desire them. Seek their all time attention. Their approval. Comments. Smile.

You put them under pressure to measure up.

You set them up to disappoint you.

The greatest battle anyone will ever fight is with the heart. With that pulling of the heart. That insatiable ache. And if you win, you lose.

.....(To be continued)

Angels of mine

Sitting in the airport after a protracted (and way overstayed!) working trip to Benin, with my head aching, belly growling and my phone ringing incessantly, I realised I had not drawn a wing in weeks. 

I unzipped my bag, pulled out a sheet and drew the first thing that came to mind...flight!

I am often asked, why i draw angels and where it all started from (some wanted to know the list of my muses!) and the answer is always the same; Its my release valve. It's the only set of drawings I make that no client is waiting for. I started as a relaxing exercise (and they are lady angels for a reason!) and tried to represent an attribte in each angel i draw. There is ecstacy, anger, fury, love, seduction, war, hate, strength and more. Each angel means something to me and have been referenced from real life people (most times without their knowing it!)

A little something i wrote and featured on a friend's blog last year (2013). Just me letting my usually wild imagination run, well, WILD! enjoy.

This is the full image. Please feel free to...stare.

I felt it as soon as I stepped into the chilly banking hall.
That feeling that someone is checking you out. A psychic connection too pervading to ignore. The constant pulling at your head to turn and seek out the eyes calling your name without words. 
I could feel the double drills through the side of my head even as I fought the urge to turn and look. I caught a glimpse of her through the corner of my eye.
Slowly, I peeled my eyes away, forcing myself to face the front as I awaited my turn on the cash queue. She couldn't be staring at me. Could she?

The urge returned.
Pretending a nonchalant glance around the hall, I turned my head to see the source of the endless piercing. I caught her eyes then. She didn't turn away. She didn't even blink. She just stood there, staring at me. Round face with slight angles at the chin, a nose reminiscent of hausa/fulani ancestry, wine-red glossy lips seemingly made for kissing. Lips that kept most of the sun hidden in her gap-toothed smile. Hair pulled back with few careless bangs scattered neatly across her forehead coyly concealing her eyebrows.

Her eyes. Those smiling sexy eyes. A tinge of blue unseen in these parts, nested in smooth brown skin. I couldn't look away. It would soon be my turn. 
She didn't blink. She just kept up that smile…and the stare.
I turned from her spell, broken by the call of the cashier. Yet as I filled out my deposit slip, I felt those eyes stripping me. I wrote and crossed out a number. 

As I turned to walk out of the hall, my business concluded, I saw her.
Now she was really staring. Longing. Inviting. I could hear her call. Her eyes said it all. It’s almost like she wished to come to me. To reach out for me. To step out of the Ecobank savings account rollup banner and give me the true definition of a french kiss.
I run through the metal detector doors. 
My imagination needs therapy, I know.

Hi there people. So the thing is, I have been hanging around a lot of Writers in the last 3 years (particularly poets) and I think they are rubbing off on me...in a good way. What's with me and poetry you ask? Maybe the musical, cryptic nature of poetry and the mystery that can be hidden within the lines attracts me...maybe. Or maybe its just the poet(s) i like.
Here's a little piece i wrote recently. Its my first (actually my first written one) so, be gentle!



I KNOW YOU 

I know you

You with Hair that speaks in waves, weaves and bangs.

Tinted red, wine like roses burnt

You with Eyes deep in laughter at jokes yet unsaid

Calling out constantly for truth, kindness and care

I know you

You with a wide toothy smile lurking in wait at all times

Gapped with a window to the thoughtful words your lips hold

You with a face that radiate with light from within, neon.

Hiding years of pain, calm within turbulent waters.

You that your neck carries the burden of royalty. Fine and lined with pearls.

Changing in tune to your many experiences. Wide. Thin.

You with Shoulders broad and straight, strong with use.

Shoulders that have borne weight prepared for more than one

I know you

Your Heart holds unconditional love simmering in wait to splurge on the deserving

Betrayed by some and overwhelming for others. Wonderful none the less

You with a Bossom that has nurtured intelligent offsprings. Taken for a keeping

Nurtured many and lost one dear…and briefly passing.

You with skin tough as orange peels. Protectively soft.

Oozing eye burning fumes when scratched without care

You whose loving movement flows with confidence and, insecurity

A valley of pain, pleasure and creation making for sweet memory

You with Legs bowed, Firm in footing and graceful in steps

Skirted by clothes that sway in rhythm to storms you have braved

Your feet encased in calluses of the sands of time. Whitened by strain.

Clad in the crotchet of your many walks through creation

You that your mind weaves words to songs, plays and life.

Ever seeking the rise above baseness in the sinking world of humanity.

I know You.

You…Flawed to perfection

Filled often with Doubts, fears, confusion

Firmness, Faith, trust, Grace and purpose.

With love

Yes, I know you

I know

You are Greater than the sum of your pains and trials

Wiser than the collection of a symphony of life lived now and before

Higher than the plane of your body’s existence in this simple form.

I know

You are

Amazing

And unequalled.

Yes.

I know you.