August is the coolest month, breeding
Happiness out of Haggisland, mixing
merriment & detachment, masking
the wee tick-tock of September…
tolu ogunlesi (2014)
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poetry
[poem] Signature
by Tolu Ogunlesi
1
Who sits in your cockpit,
Sweaty hands fixed upon your controls –
God, or Darwin?
Who spins your machine out of the path
Of my buzz-seeking swipe;
Programs you to fly light
On your outbound journey, elusive
As light; and to return loaded
With blood, sluggish, half-doomed?
2
Splattered,
On the wall beside my bed,
Your bloody memory.
You never said
Much, allowing instead
Those whining wings
That fed on dreams
And darkness
To do all the speaking.
3
Who will bear your spirit to eternity,
And build a memorial at the site
Where you will lie,
A blood-bearing boeing,
A living signature,
A darkening memory
(c) 2011
Originally appeared in Istanbul Literary Review
University of Birmingham reading – Tue Mar 1, 2011
CENTRE OF WEST AFRICAN STUDIES
University of Birmingham
2nd floor, Arts Building
(0121-414-5128)
Tuesday March 1st 2011
at 5.05pm in the Danford Room
A reading by two distinguished Nigerian poets
FEMI OYEBODE
&
TOLU OGUNLESI
FEMI OYEBODE is Professor of Psychiatry at the university of Birmingham. He has also published several books of poems, including a volume of Selected Poems published in the Kraftgriots series in 2003. He has been an Honorary Fellow in CWAS for many years.
TOLU OGUNLESI is a highly regarded poet and cultural commentator. In 2009 he won the Arts & Culture Award at the CNN African Journalist of the Year Awards for his story, ‘What the Truck?’, which was chosen from among 836 entries from 38 nations across the African continent. He is currently enrolled on the MA in Creative Writing at University of East Anglia.
All are welcome
Links to some of my poems available online…
New publications…
Three poems in the March 2009 issue of World Literature Today (Page 15)
New blog post up in NEXT: Talk to us, Mr. President! Read it here
Read the rest of my NEXT Blogs here
Article, Lost Books, in The Lagos Review (TLR), here
Poem, We Will Set Forth at Midnight, in the February 2009 issue of Palapala, here
