"Fate Undecided" by Abimbola Ridwaanullah Idowu

Fate Undecided I

Hope and despair engulf the sullen atmosphere

As the day chameleons into night,

Anxiety thrives here and there

The father of the unborn trots up and down,

It’s nine-month, but labour has been delayed,

For the lives of the mother and the unborn are unsafe;

Looming danger, the ante-natal forecasts

A cloudy atmosphere foretells the astrologers’

bad landing, the soothsayers are prophesying

Clerics are fervently praying

It seems the awaited is fear-laden

The heart of the mother throbs with fear

The brother, a stillborn, has wreaked much havoc on

the lineage,

His existence, they say, is deadly to the household,

But the unborn, they say, carries not a dreadful fate,

What becomes a lot of the family of the unborn?

A New Sun Rose (Fate Undecided II)

A glimmer of hope shone from the horizon,

Brightened and enlivened the gloomy atmosphere

A deep sigh of relief, after a spell of whimpers and

pushes

Curves of smile drew on cold cheeks

Tears of joy trickled from wet eyeballs,

As rhapsodies heralded the new born

With the announcement of a safe birth,

Coupled with the crisp welcome cry,

An air of relief blew on the household,

A messiah has come to salvage them from the claws

of their horrible fate

The brother, a stillborn, is preparing for his eternal departure

The christening ceremony is still a couple of days away,

But the air of change has rented the atmosphere

A new dawn is about dawning on the lineage

A new sun rose; their heart of hope glimmered!

Abimbola Ridwaanullah Idowu is a young budding Nigerian poet. Born November 5, 1996, he grew up in his hometown, Iwo, Osun State, to be a conscious Nigerian mind. He is a 300-level student of Islamic Studies; Department of Religions, Faculty of Arts, University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Kwara State.