O breasts of waters, breasts of waters
Forge me deep beneath these eaves
Where rafters seal their termite scars
As a merchant’s curse that strides these seas
Gird me for the tumult route
This earth which throws her open loin
Upon the night’s courtesan note
To glaze thunders on my coin
O breasts of waters, breasts of waters
Plant me down these brine gutters,
The leopard dreads the fateful rein
That dance across this coarse terrain
To navels of the river shore
Earthed is the seed of youth
As wary eyes upon the ore
As tuber drawn from rodent tooth
O breasts of waters, breasts of waters
Raise me ‘bove a wayside tryst,
A gourd of wine, these creeping lairs
Lest I drown in jealous mist
Lest I stray the cockerel’s path
Denied of feathers, robbed of plinth
Cowering in the gods’ abode
To graze an earth where once I stood
O breasts of waters, breasts of waters
Hoist me ever, hoist me now.
Oyin Oludipe is a Nigerian writer. He is a contributing poet to the anthologies, ‘African Eyeball’, ‘Footmarks: Poems on 100 Years of Nigeria’s Nationhood’ and ‘Black Communion: Poems of 100 New African Poets’. He edits nonfiction at Expound Magazine.