Poem: Custodian of Culture (For the Sake of All We Are)

Words real fast flying

Off the tree shed en-masse

Oro agba ti o se lowuro, await the nightfall

It’s nightfall for all these appalls

Lost in the wilderness of knowledge

True words now dying

Gibberish swells beyond the oceans

Breed of no value amass

Ajee ke lana, death! Today, by the furrow

The way now is to porridge lost

Vanity worn as apparels

While the tree shed leaves?!

Leaves of value for doggerels

Doggerels in words

Doggerels in deeds

Where in the world is dignity?

Where-in lies my sage?

Degradation of soul robes me to the tongue

For collective nonchalance Our new god

We no longer are in custody

Of a glorious origin, a blessed past

Our footsteps to this dwindling present

Thus our blunder a parody

Blunder in words

Blunder in deeds

Where has our wonderful world gone?

Is our value once of prestige torn

To shreds all that was embodied?

Custody is long lost

Custodians now but a few

Melodies of culture blown to dust

I think it is time for curfew

To regain the nation lost

That our blood be washed anew

*Oro agba’ ti o se lowuro means the words of the elders which is not fulfilled by dawn (would come to pass by nightfall).

*Aje ke lana means that a witch’s wail or cries yesterday (part of a Yoruba adage).