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.