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A BIRD OF PANEGYRICS SINGS OF LEGENDS | a poem by Olajuwon Joseph Olumide

Read Time:1 Minute, 36 Second
time's infinite stretched hind-limbs 
remind me that life is no man's mate 
ask your forebears, they met this ageless historian here 
in life's classroom with eyes-fluttering nursery rhymes 

& since mine too have fluttered into a heritage of discovery,
i realised, we all meet this stage for a play of passion 
& when time rules out our stays, we must saunter out 

whatever our roles, we immortalise our characterisations 
in the scripts of next generation's story arc

this poem is a bird of panegyrics in the palace of legends 
plucking some epic notes on the strings of orature

it sings of men who mounted a pedestal of literary trajectory 
if not for Chinua, Soyinka, Osundare, Okigbo, Nwapa, Emecheta...

would our winged arms soar with such momentum
carrying our fathers' coloured tales across the seas?

/Adichie, Teju Cole being the nexus of ancient mantles/

even so, i write of emergent grassroots men 
these are merchants of our dear intellectual art 

i write of Eriata's 1000poets4change & PIN,
Kukogho's WRR & authorpedia, Badmus's inkspired
& all who became Àràbà of pecuniary attires
covering nakedness of saplings to bud into Ìrókò.

i leave this note on the lips of tomorrow,
let them say, 

these souls live on,
with immortal footprints on this terrain of african poetics 
embodying our narrative experiences.

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