Ola-Di-Meji (A Chronicle) by Deji Cornelius Daodu

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This is how it began…
I sat amidst my 'peers' in that realm where bodies need no flesh 
when the roll call summoned me.
The world of men needed me and 'me',
It was my time (our time),
so we undertook the journey to transform anguish into cheers.
The journey was twice as tough, ask my mother
When pangs shot through her womb, the world knew it
I was never one but two. 
Bringing twice the thunder, twice the joy,
as I had learnt the ofo alabarameji (twin corpus).
Held me up to the sun, my shadow refused to stretch

Naming me was a saga.
How do you name a tiger that roars like a Lion?
A fish that moves like a dragonfly?
A bird that combs the skies like a celestial dragon?
I sat in the golden evening sun and ripped out my placenta 
as I announced my arrival with a baby roar and a wimp
And then the world knew I was more than one.

I sat with the elusive spirits and sought counsel,
He flew on the wings of nothingness only to land in the abode of fruition
and conquer a world he was yet to behold.
I hunted the phoenix just to pick my teeth with her feathers.
I am not one, for I am two, a twofold persona.
I kissed the world and she surrendered in my arms 
For I had the strength of two.

And when I am no more, 
Having fulfilled my days I will transcend this mortal realm 
And split my soul in two to sit among the stars and shine twice as bright,
for I was always two, never one.
I am Oladimeji.

Creative works (literature, art and culture) emerging from Nigeria.

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