Naija Poetry | Waiting on Love

Barnabas Atungwu

Barnabas Atungwu

Monday 31 October 2022

Aduke!

Like sand running thru my fist

Away from me I feel you slipping

Maybe together, we weren’t meant to be

‘cos every time it’s your shadow I see

As you weave your way again, leaving me

Your presence makes peace flee

In your absence peace like breeze caressing the sea is what I feel

Yet I have chased you hoping someday, you will love me

Aduke!!

Like a lost sheep wandering

You have left me lost and wondering

With a heart shattered

Hopes dashed and lungs tired from the many hurts

Yet like a deer sprinting across lush fields

And a car chasing the sun neatly tucked beneath the blanket of the horizon

I have chased you hoping someday, you will love me

Aduke!!!

Alas! my hoofs are bruised, bloody and battered

My arms are withering, wretched and weak

My voice is lost and throat sore from my cries and wails calling you

But your silence is so silent yet deafening

All I hear is my heart racing like horses galloping

And thumping like yam being pounded in the Benue valley

But I have chased you hoping someday, you will love me

Aduke!!!!

My eyes pop like popsicles with tears freely flooding my face like the river Benue

My heart drowning in my own tears is frail and sick sorely

My feet too heavy to move and heart grinding slowly to a halt

My limbs are numb and emotions dead like brazen iron

I saw my life ebbing away like the oceans washing off its shores

I looked on, and not even your shadow did I see anymore

Yet I waited for you - minutes turned to hours, days, weeks, months, years

Then I became a shadow - dusty, dim and grime

Waiting for you hoping someday, you will love me Aduke!!