Morountodun | Martins Deep

Morountodun

Morountodun,

this is the place you'll find me

like the prey of a shrike

choked through by your thorny words

When the chase after Omo Ogun with your heart

Failed to be anything worthy to steal the cheapest glance from his

hammer and anvil

When the waist beads fails to be the skeleton key

to get all you desire

You will find me.

This is where you'll find me

when the stars you so dreamed of- drifting off my bosom that has never

held anything as precious as dying mother breathing her last

are now but fireflies

stuck in the cobwebs of the black widow.

It is not I Morountodun if the songs that tried to serenade you is

served cold, sour.

The live coals within

my chest will drip down my cheeks.

Looking into my eyes

do you see a flower dancing in the furnace unscathed?

It is you my black woman

for pain will not devour

the faintest wisp of love

in the wildest of fires.

Tell me tales of your miseries

of the lots

cast on your iro and buba to be this tattered

I'll fetch all the cowries

from the goatskin bag in my head

right on this spot

for the crown duly reserved.

No one must ask you why

Why all these fruitless years to make you wail.

Is the soul of man not meant for flight to console this wingless house of flesh?

Is the spirit not cursed to be thirsty for a drink from the fountains

of the deep?

Here you are Morountodun

ripest with penitence.

I am night

you have come with your fool moon

for the scene that's makes our kindred spirits wish for the body of youth.

When you come to the fall off

chasing shadows

you will be welcomed crashing

into my waiting arms obsessed

with pieces of a broken woman

gathered perfectly into the mould

of awe.

This is where you will find me

Upon the earth you buried me with the words;

"Morountodun is a jewel destined for the lions."

There is no dead man with fire

in his belly

My one cry still holds

the great heat

that'll melt the hardest iron of Ogun

where the heart is shielded.

- Martins Deep

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