I
was engrossed in roadside barter,
To
get for dinner Titus, spices and ‘ata’,
Suddenly
was the alarm,
Ole!
Ole! What was the crime?
Out
of curiosity, I peered;
Who
wouldn’t anyway? I peered,
Awaiting
the revelation of the notorious celebrity,
To
steal a shameful stare at stupidity.
Then
came he with crazy celerity,
Memory
failed me to place his identity;
Come
a little closer (soliloquy),
Perhaps,
I could conjure your story;
Such
hapless juvenile; why wasn’t he in school
That
he chose to become an illicit tool?
What
a rapt rabble,
Trailing
the lad to grapple
Him
in stifling shackles
For
the roused troubles;
He
was caught,
Machetes
were raised; he was cut
And
none come to the rescue
As
cold onlookers were gratified with the vicious view
He
wasn’t from Nazareth,
Why
wickedly take his breath?
I
had pleaded the rabble mercy,
I
went unnoticed like a pin thrown into the sea;
The
lad was curled with tyre,
To
be burnt and killed by fire;
One
mad man poured on him petrol,
Lit
a match; what sorrow I saw roll
And
he was burning, screeching, dying;
I
could do nothing; all was watching,
And
so his blood won’t be on my head,
I
completed the barter and left the scene in dread
What
a way a Juvenile life was ended;
You
ask: couldn’t he have been reprimanded?
He
was once upon a thief,
And
in such mutilation the rabble found relief.
*Ata= a Yoruba word meaning pepper
*Ole= a Yoruba word shouted to mean thief
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