by Ezun Joshua

___

ARIKE MI,

The moon has taken shelter in the sky, 

making obvious my lonesomeness.

And my lonesome heart has born a mind of it's own, 

a mind with memories.

I remember this night the first day we spoke,

That dress, the black gown.

I remember how I had to keep my calm

 and pretend you were like everybody else.

Please don't think me a villain 

for then, my stony heart was still fueled by ambition.

ARIKE MI,

I have always loved you and the things I said that pushed you away 

or made you feel otherwise were just words from a scarred heart whose wounds were eternal.

I pray my love, that you'll one day see me in the light that I see you

Cause I don't know 

if my heart can survive these lonely seasons without stoning up again.

I love you ARIKE MI, 

I love you and I always will.

ARIKE MI

©2021 Ezun Joshua. All Rights Reserved.

Brief:

Arike Eulogy in Yoruba is a beautiful and moving praise poem to a woman named Arike. The poem celebrates Arike's physical beauty, her inner virtues, and her accomplishments. The poem though, written in English has the Yoruba language connotation, which is spoken by over 30 million people in Nigeria and other parts of West Africa. Yoruba is a tonal language, which means that the meaning of a word can change depending on the tone used to pronounce it. This makes Yoruba poetry particularly rich and expressive.