LINES AND VERSES

I see this fire coming I know I should be running But here I am tall standing Not knowing what I am waiting for Not knowing whom to look out for No one looks out for me I wish I couldn’t die My essence is running dry O’ world of fast fading riches Yet I am full of wishes Maybe I will live on And be maimed forever Maybe the winds will take my ashes And I will be gone wherever I am only a tree . 2009©J.Ifeme

One’s deepest fear could be anything. As a child, I remember being too scared of staying in a room alone because I was made to believe masquerades would come out of the ant holes to devour my testicles because I was not yet initiated into manhood. Some day later, my fear was unmasked. And I remember passing the same myth down to my immediate younger ones, manipulating their inexperienced to letting go some of their candy, or whatever they wouldn’t give up easily. Today we laugh over it. Some peoples’ deepest fear could be their partner leaving them for good. They would do everything; show all the love and affection; do all the right things, and those they shouldn’t; lose their self esteem – but never standing up to their truest fear. Consequently, they live a very miserable life, and inconspicuously ruining it all for everyone around them. There are those whose deepest fear is death. The fact that someday they will be no more; they become tied or even subservient to anything that prom...

She was a living goddess Her beauty had every man And for a while I thought she was mine Regardless … We would chat away the day till nine Then she’d be off with some other man But someone waits in the line Regardless… Did she have just fun? Did she fall in love? May be it was fun Some said it was the money… She said she’d be a woman If she could choose another life And I knew that was truly her She kept nothing from me Not her joy, not her tears Not her inner fears For ours was a platonic affair And we needn’t beware Her mother called onto Jesus The night she lost to the virus And I called life unfair And stared down at a face once so fair “ Oh, beauty is vain.” I heard someone say. “She died of too many men.” An old woman ruefully said. But I knew my feelings then There may have been many men And I wished I could have told her While she still was here. 2009©J.Ifeme

At one point or another in life you may have gone through a situation, and each time you visit that same environment, memories flood back. It could be pain, loss, anguish, or even nostalgia – it doesn’t matter. Or you have been hurt by someone, and every desire in you is to forgive and move on with life, but whenever you set your eyes on your offender, you have flash backs, however momentary. At some other times you have convinced yourself, with good reasons, that your decision was right, and believe you have overcome your bad feelings. However, the person does something similar to that which you are supposed to have dealt with and suddenly the new action becomes a reminder of the past offence. This is because remembering depends on association of ideas, and action requires environment. Imagine a walking on muddy plain, note that each footstep leaves an imprint, and whether one impression is made on another, it doesn’t erase the fact that there was one before. The mind is like tha...