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.