Tayad Lyrics

It doesn’t matter who you were or how you left

my fathers eyes never slouchs for a dead.

Same old blues, he will sing,

his only acknowledgement,

when the news of a family turning ice

arrived the doors of our ears.

He was, -

cut from the devils ribs

so immune to grief,

all of us gossiped,

And so,

It will take me 11

Years

To finally summon the courage

To ask

why

this nonchalance to death.

His answer

would be

Scooping me up

to carry me into his life,

His voice,

heavy with lust

for a childhood

in this year

That I will give everything to escape:

he will say: to ba ma itan e

ekun o le tan lakata e

Meaning:

if you know your history,

you’ll have no break from tears.

Hearing this,

I immediately want to build him a house

Out of tissues

I want to go on my knees

Tell him

It’s not too late, we are not too old,

Our hands

can still learn

to swing

But my baby brother is in the room with us

And my brother, is a flower

All he knows is open arms and forgiveness

So as expected

before I even think to find my voice

He says:

Don’t worry,

god

will avenge us.

god

I suppose

If I wasn’t here yesterday

That I could afford the luxury of trying on his hope

That I would leave church

Believing that

We must scrape clean our memory

Of the people

Who are forcing us

now

To run

marathons to funerals

For a living

with our children

who do not know how to cook

a smile or the exact colour of grains-

all of them already soiled

by blood

I suppose if god

had the foresight

To take away my sight

Their promises could move me

into believing

That sorry

Is a currency their hands have held

That us

Sharing villages, religions, names-

Alison, Bola, Aisha, Moses…,

Is enough

To forgive

Their stealing

more babies

than any terrorist ever dares,

turning our classrooms

to boardrooms

for wildlife

plaguing us

with hunting for the beauty

in this world,

denying

us

ever knowing

what a human alive looks like,

all of us dead or dying.

I suppose

if they

Would just take a break

From

Gagging

Binding

Raping

us,

into monagamy with gods,

into prayers, because

we can not afford not to

try desperately with beads

in our hands to cover

the number of siblings

we’ve had to leave

in the market

because we were

too terrified to go next

we couldn’t go back to match

Iris to torso for a proper goodbye

I could forget

We could forget

We would have no reason

No reason

to stand in their way

We too, could take

a break

To quench

our thirst for emigration.

From waking every morning

eyes sore

from poring over maps

Of countries

ringing-

anyone out there

any country please, ,

seeking

doctors, lawyers, accountants, poets,

black bodies to fill caskets,

because yes, death assured

is better

than death hiding

and friends

who will not know when

to mourn

for us.