Naija Poetry | WAITING FOR A VIRGIN GOAT.

PROMISE ITA OKPOHOUDEME

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PROMISE ITA OKPOHOUDEME

Monday 19 January 2026

WAITING FOR A VIRGIN GOAT.

A good enemy of life is time,

Walking away unmindful delay,

Passes each pace regarding no line,

And in its own, calls for the day.

In Oro, Edu is a beautiful lady,

Whose skin brightening the sky,

And her eyes a sandy stream,

Flowing out a distant lane.

Osung is a young man favoured in her eyes,

He must not delay before his kinds,

He wrestling a man, called on his kinsmen,

They bowed to the gods for them another man.

The journey to another compound,

Is never without a she goat,

With five bountiful tubers of yam,

A local gin, bottle of understanding for them.

There must be a solid foundation,

For the bottle of understanding,

Else, the bottle shakes on the table,

And fall apart, as faces bow for the oracle.

All the traditions is on a voyage,

With Osung to another compound,

To fulfill and bring home Edu. She,

Must be washed, clothed for the next compound.

Getting to another compound,

Traditions had a seat,

That the day may have a lead,

As the gong played its beats.

Now, the goat is centered for assessment,

And the skirt is removed for virginity test,

Silence ascended the throne of noisy occasion,

For that's the first in all celebration.

The goat's examination is done,

As Oro remained deaf and dumb,

"This is not a virgin goat!"

Edu's father chased silence with a machete,

"I am sorry, she can't be married without a virgin goat",

The voyage left another compound,

Only with the "disvirgined" goat,

But, Osung didn't see beauty in another yard.

Eke is a mother in Udim Oro,

So, eke Osung gave the goat to eke Uliong,

That she may rear till she births a virgin goat,

Few months later, she's birth another goat,

Osung and his kinsmen voyage another compound,

Because eke Osung trusted eke Uliong in her disciplines,

Wholeheartedly, "this is the virgin goat",

So, the goats' doctor stepped up again,

But at last, there's no virgin goat.

Sixty six years has gone with sixty six goats astray,

And the living wound's grown elephant grasses about,

With no trouser looking the skirt again,

Edu backed the single's award for life.

When she couldn't see again her blood,

She went to the shrine and cursed the god,

She washed her nakedness, pray for death,

Yet, the Stony, woody traditions never blink,

"Who made you against my self!

Oh, you feigning things".

Why men grown rocks on free men,

Made men chains, limiting men steps,

Built fences round men necks,

That they wear around like daily necklace,

What is the traditions,

Who are our customs,

What built for us this foundation.

Why should the living lift a rock for the death

What is this funeral!

You giant rocks in every stream!

Let the mighty rivers flow,

For time know no limit,

And all bird may fly free.

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