Of Poetry And Rhymes - Stefn Sylvester Anyatonwu

POEM 138: OF POETRY AND RHYMES

They laugh when I tell them I dislike free verse

because odes and rhymes in it are disperse.

This is my poetry, it cannot be worse

permit me or not, you don't fill my purse.

Forgotten how rhyming makes poetry on fleek?

A mic and a poet; oh what sweet music!

Such joy it brings when verses I ink

Tell me, why should I change it to a prose like thing?

If I take rhyme out of poetry everything goes wrong

It's like refusing sweetness and feasting on dung.

It's like erasing taste buds out of the tongue

Like shoving the melody out of a song.

Like taking the sound off onomatopoeia

or hunting bush meat with otapiapia.

Like telling horror tales that make children laugh

or ending this verse without making you laugh.

Like taking humour away from Nigeria

or removing Mecca from Saudi Arabia.

Like robbing a poor poet of his solitude

or saying Oha 'gainst Ogbono is better a soup.

You see how of no sense is poetry with a rhyme?

It makes poetry an unpleasant pepper spiced wine.

I'll always have my poems punctuated with rhymes

Always. Yes always, though it fetch me no dime

Like my Ugandan poet friend who believes page poetry ain't cool

you could write me off as a romantic fool,

but with the stubbornness of a Fulani mule

I'll always rhyme when poetry I spool!

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Glossary:

Fleek: Slang. (usually used in the adjectival phrase on fleek) flawlessly styled, groomed, etc

Otapiapia: A locally made insecticide.

Oha & Ogbono: Soups native to the Igbo people.

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- Stefn Sylvester Anyatonwu

#365DaysOfPoetry

#Pengician

#SSA

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