You are Ocean: The fierce, protective She,
Mother of fifteen*, source of fecundity.
We offer perfume, flowers, jewellery:
Save them, the shipwrecked, caring deity.
Fair divinity, accept our fealty
'Yeye omo eja,'* we are your trawl
a rich haul that owes you all loyalty
No pride, no vanity, we are in thrall.
Health-healing mermaid of the crescent moon,
may life-giving tide rush foam to our shores
let Ogun* slip to the Lagos Lagoon
turn sirocco west, bring wet to restore.
She who is all heterogeneity*
lovely Ashaba* bring us prosperity.
.
* Fifteen Orishas came forth from Yemaja. An Orisha is a spirit or deity.
* 'Yeye omo eja' - 'Mother whose children are like fish.'
* Heterogeneity is the state of being heterogeneous. It is diverse in kind or nature. I am using it here to mean diverse in ability and capacity.
* The Ogun River is a waterway in Nigeria that discharges into the Lagos Lagoonn.
*Ashaba: Said to be so beautiful that no human can look at her directly.
YOU ARE READING
Dragonish
PoetryPART 1: Seven poems that explore love. The sated wind doodles mischievously no longer the ravening raptor loosed that scratched sharp claws to my unfettered glee. Now are you temperate, husky, obtuse. PART 2: Follows the tale of a persecuted dragon...
