LINES AND VERSES

It is 12:45 pm in March, the morning in-flow traffic is just handing over to city runs. The blazing sun deters even the most defiant trekker from avoiding cabs. Abuja is such a city where one tenth of its population reside in the suburbs; in the morning everyone is in a mad rush to get in, and at noon everyone searches for the fastest exit from its sun. Just like the lions of the Serengeti, cab drivers like Ola don’t have to stay long in the business to know this is the kill period. But rather than the usual first-day-of-week excitement, Ola feels something inside that leaves him between a rage and a need to cry, really cry out. No, it’s not his resentment at the job, which is like a cancer you already is there, and some day it will either kill you, live with you or magically go away. It’s about a call he just received, a soul crucifying call. For the past year his job has been to pick people up and drop them off wherever they wished and get paid for it: just pick, drop, and get paid. ...

Love is so important that we spend most of our adult lives searching for it. We date, we lie, we compromise, we… We preach, look, serenade, and fantasize. And sometimes we find love and don’t even recognize it. Some believe that love will come when you least expect it, while others think you should go out there and get it. Some say you should work it out; a lot still expect you to go ahead with it and grow to love with time. The obvious is that love remains the most inexplicable mystery of all human emotions. There are times when all the indicators are right, and you are like “yeah, this must be love!” That excitement can be like no other, but the moment you settle down to savor it, everything simply dissipates and you left in distraught. But could that not have been love? Apparently, love could sometime be a one sided craze, one person has all the right feeling but the other isn’t just stepping up, and no matter how much of it flows from on direction, it can never compensate for lack ...

Not that Chisom had a thing to do with that tasty honey in the bottle, not that she didn’t desire it. She was just a child. But she’d hoarded the sugar for her pap and cooked the solution in an old kettle till it was brown and greasy and tasted like the honey in the bottle, and she buried it in her safe haven. When the honey bottle went missing, someone said they found a portion in the old metal box where Chisom kept rags of possession. She must have hidden it, lamented the woman, so she could sweeten her retched tongue. She made it known to all the neighbors so no one would mind the noise when it came. A dog needed a bad name if it was to be hanged. Just that the honey for her kids’ breakfast was missing and something that looked like it was found in Chisom’s box, she had to be kicked down the stairs like the worthless sack of bones she was called, and whipped till her skin felt like beef on a grill. And because her kids had to have sugar instead of honey for breakfast, Chisom had to ...

Let’s see. She is running her tongue again and getting you all depressed. You feel your authority is being challenged and you have to make it clear who is the man; you don’t want your friends talking in disregard. You think she is acting loose and if you don’t do a thing about it she would never know how badly you feel, or, bizarre as it might seem, how deeply you love her. We have to put the drink aside for a while; you really wanted to beat her, which is why you got drunk in the first place. In a way or another we would have seen quite a few women being battered; may be enough to wonder why some would be so maltreated, yet they are still all over their tormentor like clinging ivy; may be enough to wonder why a man would so badly abuse and assault the same individual he claims to love; may be enough to know where to stand on the issue. A lot of these cases have the same fundamental causes: nagging, fluid temper, jealousy, alcoholism (and their likes), low self esteem, pride and so on....

Honesty leaves on the first bus out of town An old man with a bitter frown tells the world how bad the blind feels for crumbled notes, jabs from motorcycle wheels A ten year old makes a corner A woman realizes her cash loss The street goes by like it’s not a thing to bother Just so you know it’s everyone to their cross The rulers pull the means above the people Devious messiahs find new disciples The law man wants to be told Another baby dies in the cold A call to prayer is made The old blind rolls up seeing The rulers find a place for their loot A dog carries away the dead baby The law removes its blindfold And the street is empty The prayer places full (C) J.Ifeme

Honesty leaves on the first bus out of town An old man with a bitter frown tells the world how bad the blind feels for crumbled notes, jabs from motorcycle wheels A ten year old makes a corner A woman realizes her cash loss The street goes by like it’s not a thing to bother Just so you know it’s everyone to their cross The rulers pull the means above the people Devious messiahs find new disciples The law man wants to be told Another baby dies in the cold A call to prayer is made The old blind rolls up seeing The rulers find a place for their loot A dog carries away the dead baby The law removes its blindfold And the street is empty The prayer places full (c) J.Ifeme

One of the many mysteries of our behaviour as humans is the almost constant tendency to betray the trust of someone we have pledged our faithfulness and love. The question is: why would any married person still seek sexual satisfaction outside matrimony? Is it that we stop trusting, or begin to take trust less seriously than we initially did? Or is that we marry that one we love and later find them less loveable as time rubs on the feelings? Much has been said about chemistry; how it is important to marry someone with whom we make sexual connection, and how that would mould a strong bond in the union. There are also beliefs that getting married to someone we are physically attracted to would produce a long and strong partnership, as the couple would find it appealing to be in company, but the fact remains that even such seemingly strong interactions have also given birth to infidelity. Whether it done because a partner is no longer loved, to get even with an erring lover, or because on...