Mágùn

Makinde Adeniyi

Biography: Makinde Adebayo Adeniyi is a Prince, Physician (by training), Poet, and Author. He has published 2 poetry anthologies titled "Night Marauders and Other Poems," published by Carrot Publishers in 2022, and "Echoes from the Savannah," published by Amazon in 2024. He is currently working on another poetry anthology. He writes poems about social issues, culture, nature, love, and medicine. Some of his poems are Afrocentric in nature with a tilt towards the Yoruba culture and tradition.

Makinde Adeniyi 's Profile

Makinde Adeniyi

Monday 4 November 2024

On The Run

On the run

Hunted by my past, trailed by my shadow,

Intoxicated by elixir of youth,

I climb the ìrókò beyond the leaves.

Wail of woes, dehydrated dreams

Crushed in the battlefield of the deep;

Love lost, hoarse voice, greying hairs.

The wind slaps me cold,

Drunk with evil pleasure,

Sweet sorrow envelopes me;

Then it dawns on me,

I’d frittered the forest and harried the sea

With eyes larger than my stomach

While lost in the jungle of ambition.

I have impregnated the sand

and birthed blood;

Now,

Buried in the remnant of the night,

Fame

Is a remote treacherous valley

of thorny roses.

Wandering in the wilderness of civilization,

The stench of my decomposing sins has found me out.

A prisoner in my own skin,

I must hide and run,

And run and hide.

Solace in firewater and ghettos,

Like the hourglass,

I must hit the highway

And journey to nowhere.

In the end,

I can't outrun my shadow.

From "Echoes from the Savannah" © Makinde Adebayo Adeniyi, 2024

Makinde Adeniyi

Wednesday 16 October 2024

CANCER

It began as a swelling Localized swelling Painless at first Then painful Then came a period of recession Oh! What a sweet relief Wellness reigns again Then again the swelling Only bigger now Persistent Bigger And bigger They say its cancer And it has come to stay No cure, they say The cancer has metastasized Through lymphatic vessels To distant regions Where it eventually Commits apoptosis. The conqueror Has conquered itself Relief for the conquered Succour has come Finally.

Makinde Adeniyi

Wednesday 16 October 2024

Time and Chance

Time and chance Faith and fate Strive succeed, relax regress The charm of beauty And the pride of life Are often the fortress of loneliness And vast sadness Time and chance Faith and fate The heart is the real deal Beyond the veil is the seal For only in you lies the verity Time is a tyrant Chance has no script Time and Chance Faith and fate Mingling in the matrix of the mind Face your fears, feed your faith Soar like the Eagle, conquer space Take the plunge, dear to float In adversary lies victory

From Echoes from the Savannah © Makinde Adebayo Adeniyi, 2024

Makinde Adeniyi

Monday 7 October 2024

Black

BLACK

Olè! Olè!! Olè!!!
Petrol spattered
Strike the match!
Let him burn! A born brute
Bringing brawl, bruises and blood

Death! Death!! Death!!!
They chanted
No mercy
I saw violence in their vision
Venom in their voice

Stench of burning flesh, choking
Death, slow and agonising
Mercy took to flight
When the devil seized the wheels

Alas!
When it rained
Shea butter made fun of the
Salt, forgetting that
After the rain comes
Sunshine.

From Echoes from the Savannah © Makinde Adebayo Adeniyi, 2024

Makinde Adeniyi

Saturday 14 September 2024

The Audacity of Hope

Day, fresh and fearless;
Night, a distant dream;
The sadness of noon,
gone.

The sun sheds radiance on a new moon,
Crowning the hills in beauty and gold.
In blissful awe, the mountains
Welcome the rains to the green.

Like dew, promiscuous fortunes,
Swallowed by the Yew.
A newborn, birthed with hope.

Desire, dare, seek.
Resign regrets, despise doubt.
Ponder, pause, pray.

Toil in the mines of knowledge,
Where courage silently labours
into victory.

Believe,
Watch the future fall
in line.

From "Night Marauders and Other Poems" © Makinde Adebayo Adeniyi, 2022

Makinde Adeniyi

Wednesday 11 September 2024

New Yam

Death brings life

New, tender and green

Earth brown, immaculate white

The priest heralds her coming

The town crier drums it

The farmer dances to the market

It's time to celebrate

Let loose the masquerades

Celestial visitors from yonder

Let the melody of the odó

Echo the birth of the new yam

Like the birth of a newborn

The drums are rolled out

The market is flooded

With news of its coming

The homestead salivates

The streets jubilate

Vegetables will bleed today

The fattened cock will crow no more

The slumber of the pestle is over

For what is in the yam that the knife doesn't know

The noise of pounding

Will keep the neighbours awake

Iyán funfun báláwú is on the menu today

From: Echoes from the Savannah © Makinde Adebayo Adeniyi, 2024

Makinde Adeniyi

Sunday 8 September 2024

Silence

Every night I pay obeisance

To all the pillars in the house

Yet, by the morning

Clothes drenched, bed soaked

Awakening becomes aversion

At first light, mama said

"How was the night"

Silence

"Oh! It has happened again"

More silence

Then shame

Of drying the raffia mat

I looked up to Eledumare

Deliver me from opprobrium

Again, silence

Forlornly, I embrace fate

Doomed to be an Island

One day

I woke up dry

Is this a dream?

I told nobody

It must be delusion

Next day dry

Again!

Then dry

Dry

Dry…

Makinde Adeniyi

Sunday 8 September 2024

Mágùn

He left the way he came

A dog deaf to the hunter’s call

He visited the pot for a quick bite

Unwelcome guest, scheming swindler

He left the way he came

Drawn to the grave

By a ravenous craving

A quick bite from Eve’s apple

He left the way he came

The forbidden mould on an ingrown toast

A poisoned chalice

Beautifully irresistible

He left the way he came

Forgetting to distil his lust

Choked on his thrust

Just before he could burst

He left the way he came

Drawn by the depths of passion

Drowned in the shallow abyss

Of an irresistible pool

Sucked dry by the puddle of life

He left the way he came

Struck by mágùn1

Three somersaults like the slaughtered

Cockrel in preparation for dinner

Or better still cum till the last drop of life

On the streets of El Dorado

Makinde Adeniyi 's Profile

On The Run

CANCER

Time and Chance

Black

The Audacity of Hope

New Yam

Silence

Mágùn

Trending Now

Most Rated Poems

Recently Joined

FPG Feeds