Foxes to Pick From & Other Poems – Adebimpe Oluwafunmilayo Adeyemi

A Sonnet for a Tollgate Massacre

When news broke,

that the Lekki tollgate blew up

in fire and gunpowder and smoke

my throat constricted in a choke,

the news was too lumpy to swallow,

the realisation was surreal

that a president would execute picketing citizens.

It was a fever dream, I thought,

from which I would wake,

but at dawn, incision marks confirmed

the botched antemortem of hope.

Grief filled my tear ducts with water

Water that won’t find their teary escape

Water trapped by government duct-tape.

The Noose Around My Neck

This country chokes

A noose around the neck 

This country chokes

An assassin’s grip around the neck

This country takes air out of my lungs

Takes wind out of my sail

Shears in a gardener’s careless hands

This place snips away my wings

Axe in an executioner’s hands

Bullets in a recruit’s rifle

This country mows down its children

This country is killing me.

Foxes to Pick From

And so it came to pass

That we were forced to pick

between foxes from different camps

One, eloquent and articulate

The other, lifeless and sterile

Devoid of ideas

Sorry excuse for a man of integrity

And so it came to pass

That we decried our lack of options

Peeling to the last layer of the onions

Behold the choice is before us

If we must pick from a herd of vipers

Let it be one who has mastered the act of foxiness.

Adebimpe Oluwafunmilayo Adeyemi is a poet, writer, and lawyer known by her pen name Fumsymoon. Her poetry speaks to socio-cultural issues, merging her passion for the arts and her activism. Her work has been published in the Poems from the Heron Clan Anthology, Olongo Africa, Sahara Reporters, Nigerian Tribune, Figure Feminist, and other places. Her poetry chapbook, Symphony of a Blackbird, is set for release this November by INKspiredng.

*Image by Nengi Nelson on Unsplash