YOU ASK – BUT UNLIKE THE REST OF THEM
I write to you from the joyfulness of childhood.
You see, all my life I only care for laughter.
It is impossible to walk through darkness without playing.
There is no better way to live than to smile the whole time.
Take it or leave it, I write to you from an ugly world
that’s isn’t ugly. I write to you with a bright yellow.
I mean, sunlight playing on my brown hair. Admirable?
Obviously. I write to you when a joke is all I know.
I write myself out of play-act. I said no more to personate.
I write to you as the young cubs at play clawing through
most doors. I write to you from the blinds of a playhouse.
Comedy comes from pleasantry. Tragedy means heartbreak,
Like when my mother wouldn’t let me play with my friends –
the negroes’ downstairs. I hate it when the world doesn’t
know what to do with fun. I’d rather be sad, it’s too much
guilt when I fail to share my R&R with my friends.
Ojo Taiye is a young Nigerian artist who uses poetry as a tool to hide his frustration with society. He also makes use of collage and sampling techniques. His poetry has been published or forthcoming in Rumpus, Offing Magazine, Cincinnati Review, Willow Spring and elsewhere. Recently, he was selected to participate in Capital City Film Festival’s Inaugural Poetry Project, Michigan & also selected as a participant in the Poetry Ireland Introduction Series 2020. He is currently living in Agbor, Nigeria. You can follow him on twitter @ojo_poems.