AGEGE BREAD - A Poem by Bada Yusuff Amoo


The adventure started
In the foaming of flower into little tin
With rectangular shape like poor man's casket
And set in the breaking oven
Made of red clay
Fire creaked beneath, and made everything
Like the painting of hell fire.

Agege bread, all your side is brown
And your back is more brown and strong
Like the muzzle of Mike Tyson
And you ready yourself as food of the masses
That unites our strength with struggles of life
Along the lane of laughter and perseverance
Where the sun rises as if it will never set.

By 11a.m at Mama Kafaya's canteen
Where we gather to sing love songs
Where we gather to talk politics and sports
Sitting side by side with unemployed graduates
Retired civil servants without pension
Old soldiers and the illiterate youths
You, politics, and sports are what bring us together.

With 20 Naira beans and 30 Naira water
We have enough to soak your strength
Not to choke out throats when the argument starts
Though, sports are indifferent about our existence
Politicians rarely talk about us
But you are as kind as the man
Whose penis is potent enough
To impregnate a fine woman.

  

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