STABBED

A poem that enlightens on the ordeals young girls and women are subjected to in early marriages in Africa

STABBED!

O' could hear the solo tune of my solemn misery

And the wrecking blast of the heaving 'bata'

Painted, swirled along the mystical voice of a Epithalamion singer

Accompained by the thumping legs of 'wewe-were' dancers

On the selfless face of the dusty earth

.

O' could hear the chants of grey-haired and young bones

Chewing their voices to the eloquent beat of my dirge

While maidens elongated my body with string of beads

And crumbs of heart-rendering words.

All oblivious of my plight, of the icy space within my heart

.

O' could feel the hot touches of sun on my bare feet

As it burns my sorrow into ashes engulfing the breath of earth

When being led to the beginning of a grieving end,

To the doorstep of youthful shattering dreams

Where rumours perch on and freedom hibernated never to be woken

.

O' could see the silence hugging the sauced serene

When i set my feet on the centre of the ceremonious field

In a twinkle, the bata and werewere ducked it in their armpits

While they enliven the moment to the taste of my mischievous groom,

Watched, as his wrinkled face preyed on my dark unripe skin

.

"You're priced, you dare to save us" he rumbled

"Blind my debt and toss more riches to my breast" father elucidated

Cared not of bud dreams I've nurtured perfectly to blossom

Cared not of the sharp daggers in his words as it thrust my heart

Cared not... and left the alphabets in it visibly depicted on the faces of night

.

Under the moon gaze, sacrificed my tears as an atonement to the night

Cried and appeased her to snatch the day from its abode

Stared into the wind and yearn for soothing words

From the tongue, from the wandering ghost of Mama

Appeased all to breach the plans of this dreadful day

.

...But all failed, and ridiculed my voices into abomination

Haunted my fate, that my cries tickled no ear

And gifted the day according to his to selfish desire.

Dressed me in marital garment of butchered dreams

While the day momentarily pierces through the cracked sites

And chants of joy and merriment reformed into a dirge of my future

.

Stabbed! Enslaved and sold into the bruised arms of womanhood

While my scarred voice smoothly bleeds words of "Willow Song"

Written by: Adedeji Raphael