'TWO MOONS AGO' by Aremu Abisola

Two moons ago

We sat at the feet of the master

Once again to sip from the fountain of knowledge

He took off his reading lenses and we stared into his wisdom reddened eyes

Awaiting the tenets of our next task

Yes! He said, go into the world and get yourselves acquainted

With the culture and traditions of your forefathers

And return in the next moon with fruits from your voyage…

In four factions,

We set out on this voyage

Transformed into masquerade worshippers, Hunters (warriors), Ifa worshippers and

Crying married virgins…

In preparing to bring forth our fruits to master and his colleagues,

We had to sacrifice rains, currency, rest and time

We had to tolerate, fight, quarrel and learn

We had to transform, compromise and multi-task…

We had to keep vigil, smile in pain and dance in fire

On the chosen days

We came out in different factions

And presented our fruits before master and his colleagues

In the spirit of pristine orality and codified forms

Carefully etched with our names boldly

Feeling like the eagles we are

To the astonishment of many

And to the pride of master…

AN ODE TO LITERATURE CLASS OF ‘16

This poem was written by Aremu Abisola, a third year student of English at the University of Ibadan.