Rasaq Malik Gbolahan

A young Nigerian poet.

[Rasaq Malik Gbolahan @rasaqmalik]

In Borno they build monuments for
their daughters
In Borno they pray for solace
in the house of grief

[Rasaq Malik Gbolahan @rasaqmalik]

The third role of a Nigerian Poet is
to hold candles when the
night is pregnant with
groans of mourners

[Rasaq Malik Gbolahan @rasaqmalik]

The second role of a Nigerian Poet
is to watch as newscasters
stutter as they sum the number
of victims in a place
where they spray bullets

[Rasaq Malik Gbolahan @rasaqmalik]

Here there are heroes buried like dogs
there are skulls on the streets
lost dreams straying in the wind
...

[Rasaq Malik Gbolahan @rasaqmalik]

The first role of a Nigerian Poet
is to write a dirge before his demise:

[Rasaq Malik Gbolahan @rasaqmalik]

Tonight you sit on a wooden bed. She is somewhere there,
listening to a radio, shaking her head as she hears the slow
music of love...

[Rasaq Malik Gbolahan @rasaqmalik]

This love will sprout
like sun in the bud
of the sky

Moradeke...

[Rasaq Malik Gbolahan @rasaqmalik]

They play a game of death
with innocent lives

Damn it!!!

[Rasaq Malik Gbolahan @rasaqmalik]

Who knows how to carve words
if not the griot from the tribe
of words
words breaking the wall of thunder

[Rasaq Malik Gbolahan @rasaqmalik]

http://t.co/cWt3DeJx9r

[Rasaq Malik Gbolahan @rasaqmalik]

http://t.co/u79639rDnZ

[Rasaq Malik Gbolahan @rasaqmalik]

I also have a dream
that breaks the wall
of night

[Rasaq Malik Gbolahan @rasaqmalik]

I know homes where curses
fly like feathers in the wind

where children sleep with
empty bellies

I know homes where traces
of tears...

[Rasaq Malik Gbolahan @rasaqmalik]

Thanks, Bro. How your side? @CarlTerver

[someone slandered all of us @carlterver]

@rasaqmalik Yeah. I saw you made the BN Poetry Prize Long list.. Hope you make the shortlist..

[Booked! Children's Library @SoooManyStories]

Hi @rasaqmalik, @webrashh, @khanbakshi911. Thanks for following :)

[Rasaq Malik Gbolahan @rasaqmalik]

Life as an activist: http://t.co/xpJX8dyzi5

[Rasaq Malik Gbolahan @rasaqmalik]

http://t.co/gLRxwuqwL2