"Gbokoyi’s Road"

Gbokoyi was special. She was the deed of the Road, of the filament of conniving gods. Mama teased her, ‘You are the pretty one Ogun gave passage into my womb.’

***

Gbokoyi was single. ‘Her life shall be a tryst with the giver of the Road alone; for the Road alone gave her life,’ our village priest told us. And so, the floods of a lonely June became for her slit currents of lecherous spirits.

***

On the roads, she saw them – a hundred abami edas crushing groins on her vision of the miles, rabid in love and greed. On the roads, Gbokoyi was queen and slave.

***

One moon, ghosts from the Beyond came and gave us strange new roads. Long leeches of iron and smoke came and went on them; and so did Gbokoyi. One night, she went and never returned.

***

Mama received a letter tonight, a drooping paper from the Beyond. The rains have begun and we all gather above the kitchen lantern. Yesterday, Gbokoyi’s sick baby died in a road traffic.

***

These nights, her wails from Lagos fight the village hills, and I still hear the floods of June scream Gbokoyi’s name.

Yoruba god of the road

Weird creatures