Hey You September!

 

Hey you September,

How beautiful you are, you bearer of good news!

And your fragrance, how heavenly!

You are altogether comely,

Pleasant and delightful.

You are all green with benefits for me,

Each day in you is fair and graceful.

Every second in you is like the honeycomb,

Oozing sweet, sweet honey unto me.

How shall I not rejoice in you, dear September? --

You who fan into flame dying embers --

Bringing forth into reality long conceived dreams!

Welcome September,

I am loving you already,

'Cause I know we shall have a jolly ride together.

I believe, and so I speak!

© September 2020, Ayobami Temitope Kehinde

THE POT IS ON FIRE

The pot is on fire,

Inside it is a soup

That promises to be yummy.

I saw her through the corner of my eye,

Ladle in hand, hurrying to the hearth.

“What are you trying to do, Lápé?!” I screamed.

“Wait for the soup to be done,

Leave the ladle be,

Else you drink a soup half-cooked

And end up with a racing stomach.”

©August 2020, Ayobami Temitope Kehinde

Stop It! It Hurts!

You are not superior because you are white.

I am not inferior because I am black.

What determines our skin colour is the level of melanin present.

And considering the benefits of being rich in melanin,

It will even be logical to say blacks are superior.

But hey, the presence or lack of melanin is not a determinant of class.

We all bleed red, whether white or black, brown, yellow or red.

We all shed salty tears.

We all fart.

We all poo.

We all wee.

We all spit.

We all secrete phlegm.

We all secrete mucus.

We all laugh.

We all get frightened.

We all feel different emotions.

We all fall sick.

We all die.

So, you see,

You are not superior to me

Neither am I to you.

I am not exceptional to be intelligent because I am black,

There are even many in my race that are more intelligent.

Listen,

As you have dumb and intelligent people in your race

So do we in mine.

As you have bad and good people in your race

So do we in mine.

Your race is not better than mine,

We are all equally human.

Being white doesn’t make you more intelligent

And being black doesn’t make me less intelligent.

So,

Stop the foolishness,

Stop the wickedness,

Stop the prejudice,

Stop racism,

’Cause it hurts. 

Treat people as people,

Treat people as individuals.

Address people’s faults for what they are,

Not making their punishment extra because of their colour.

And, 

Stop the stereotype!

Stop it!

It hurts!

©June 2020, Ayobami Temitope Kehinde