AWCABIG60: Spoken Words “For This I Was Born”
Ayo Ogundipe performs a stunning rendition “For This I Was Born.” at the AWCABIG60 event .
Read and enjoy as you explore Ayo Ogundipe world in poetry.
“For This I Was Born”
I was born to the Sub-Saharan African geography of legends and folklores
To the witness of the sun that baked my skin to perfect oven temperature
That brown of terra-cotta clay fabric…
To the sweltering heat of the tropical warmth
Wearing beads of sweat that glisten on my skin of fine cocoa-butter milk that gleam…
Where the harmattan haze frisk the wind of free-will
And coats the frame of all things that matter
With a protective foil of dust.
I was born to a centenarian of a country
With eclectic enclave of states …
From the coastal lines of Lagos
To the red earth soil of Enugu… hmm laterite, that’s right.
Down South -South
Gushing with oil, like spoils of war…
To the five emirates of Ringim, Gumel, Kazaure, Hadija
All siblings to Dutse
The five emirates that makeup Jigawa state
Now let me state my mission;
And although I was born an august visitor in the August month of the calendar year … Go figure!
I was born without a silver spoon …
As a matter of fact I was born with no spoon.
I was born without a spoon cause I did not come to the world to feed
But to feed the world with the wheat of my wit … food for thought.
Now think about it
While listening to the whispering palms
Along the lines of pines down the grape vine
Gossiping the hectic traffic of tropical topics – stop!
I did not come here to impress you with words of my mind
Using lines that rhyme.
I was born to do a number on you …
Eclectic 21, in a minute or two,
Forty-two will be the reason for a verse in two to you and you and…
Ladies and gentlemen, my fifteen minutes of fame is almost over
Yet you still wonder why I was born?
If poetry is the soul that wears the poet,
I am the unveiling of it in flesh
I was born to do this – poetry – in a pose of Green White Green
I was born to do this – Poetry
Cause I was born a Nigerian.
Salute to the Flag!
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