BolaFunmi

#blackpoetwhopaints

[bolafunmi]

A LOVE NOTE

I like you and the taste of your name

I like your skin, a prayer bead

Teaching truth to my fingers

Around dips and swells

And secret in between

I like the shape of your happy

Your face, a prophecy of giggles to come

Full belly laughs that fold you over

And tears that squeeze your face

Like you hurt from too much joy

I really like you and your silly dance

The one you only do for chocolate cake

Or when a shy Plumeria finds its way

to the cradle of your ear

I like you 'cause I know you

And the way you love yourself

is a testament of your sacredness

©️BolaFunmi

05-Dec-2020

[bolafunmi]

HOME VI - TRAIN

On days like this

When the sun hides its smile in a cloud of memories

The day dissapear into early shadows

Silence trail my footsteps home

The cold is cranky around my fingers

Begging for a glass of wine by a fireplace

On nights like this

When the room lays a heavy burden across the bed

And sleep becomes a distant lover

I get up from my sinking couch

Wrap my worries in a cup of tea

As the train rumbles home alone in the distance

I ask myself

Where did my fears come from

Where does the rain go

Why do we need to kill the silence

When will my tears stop

©️ Bolafunmi Nov18 2023

#home #poem #muse #lonelynights #shorterdays #wintercold #november #existentialqùestions

[bolafunmi]

And when you dare to wear the skin of the evening sky

A radiant orange that mirrors your joy

Glow from hair to heels

Listen to your heart bounce with the waves

Some days are meant for dancing

Walk across the sand

Soak your feet into this freedom

in the farewell sun

Let your shoulders take wings

Sway to the soundless song

Some joys are found in nothing

Your life is art, sculpt it

Carve some peace into today's stone

Let the ocean's roar

Remind you that victorous shouts

Is like an angry mob before you look

Celebrate a win today

Some days are meant for dancing

©️Bolafunmi

2023

#ocean #poem #joyoutofchaos #sunset

[bolafunmi]

HOME I - I AM

My skin feels heavy today Heavier than yesterday's Sometimes I forget it's the home I carry around

23-Feb-2022

©BolaFunmi '22

[bolafunmi]

HOME II - THE LONG WAY HOME

At the end of the day While the sun hides behind darkening clouds I find my way to the place I call home

It's dark and silent The road is a heavy morsel my legs struggle to swallow

Cold wind tears at my face As my motorbike speeds by blurring houses and shapely trees In a childlike trance I chant Màá dé'lé, mo ní láti dé'lé

At the end of the day When my key opens my door And silence welcomes me with a familiar smile I take off my clothes Right by the door Lie on the floor with my eyes closed And ask my room What happened while I was gone?

©BolaFunmi '22

15-Mar-2022

[bolafunmi]

HOME III - NOT MY HOME

I was born outside of home My mother told me as the suckle left my mouth That home was goldplated far away in the sky Earth is the workplace to strive A perfect story for the little girl Who badly wanted her own room and her bed But slept among the melodies of snores

So I grew into this woman with an addiction to own Went faraway from my birthplace In search of somewhere I could call mine I sought it in the arms of strangers In the long hours of traffic In the large waters that held rubbish But home remained elusive

I leased a little space for myself Began to plant little memories Water it with people, books, paintings, girls' night ins I began to cultivate love in this space I etched myself into the very walls There's a full wall wearing my image in a mermaid gown

It's a lovely place to come back to Sometimes I call it home But every time I pay my rent It robs me off that satisfaction that I actually own this space

It's just like my body I feel like I own it today like I know it today Dress it up in lovely gowns Skin glowing from shea butter and avocado oil I prepare a meal of it ready to be swallowed

But every morning, a new hair grows where I don't want it A new skin loses grip from its friends And when the monthly ripper comes calling for my sanity I remember my mom saying This world is not my home And it feels like I'm finally going home.

09:59 13 May 2022

[bolafunmi]

HEAVEN TASTES LIKE SIN

Let me be your goddess tonight An edifice of worship Fix your gaze on the Sun and Moon above As you climb this mountain Begin with your mouth Sprinkle your prayers all over this temple Surrender to the hum of communion I am your destiny tonight Come to take libations from your depth Strip you of heaviness in confessions and declarations Watch you spill out in a rush Till you're empty of self needing to be full Then you begin the climb again This time, with a lot of patience, awe, thanksgiving and a pledge to commit Take a deep dive into this cleansing pool Where you unveil once as worthy Twice as sanctified Make me your goddess tonight Your heaven awaits you

©BolaFunmi 20-11-2022

[bolafunmi]

SHE'S STILL DRIVING

I) It's near dawn in a quiet busy town

A young woman is balanced lazily between the what if and fuck it lanes

Wondering just how much it would cost to let the wheel go

Taking her straight into whatever fate lay up ahead

Wondering if her luck has finally run out just like her gas tank

II) She's blowing on empty now

Driving through the long quiet night

Her foot dancing between the brake and accelerator

Thinking just how poetic it would be to halt this engine hurtling at the speed of life

With the push of a pedal that would screech out a loud NO

Maybe infuse some artistic summersault in slow-mo

Add some heavy metal music before the deathlike silence

And then some quiet

III) She's sat

Back straight in the chair that sometimes bend backwards

Staring through the windshield as vicious beings slowly pop into focus

Hitchhikers wearing bells signs asking to be picked and opened up

Waiting with fresh and snoozed requests

Gentle reminders of another chaotic day stretching out of the midnight duvet

IV) It's another day of impossible milestones to claim

She knows this, she's known this before the journey began

But she's hoping that someway somehow

This unending trip finds a pull over at a gas station

She's praying for a miracle before the next bend

V) She's tired

But she's still driving

30-Nov-2022 @ 4am ©Bolafunmi

[bolafunmi]

[bolafunmi]

[bolafunmi]

IYA NI IYA MA N JE

Iya mi

Your name is like Portuguese bread

It's tough to chew and hard to swallow

I've picked this poem up and dropped

Picked and dropped

Picked and dropped like the men in my life

I cannot ever tell you about

Mother

I am afraid to ask for you

It feels wrong to demand you from you

Like demanding God to show up

Or Mr President after another kidnap

But this is Nigeria, silence is the only answer

Iya mi

Days have passed with me in a foreign land

It feels like the world is upside down

Yesterday I was called a thief

My bags invaded with utter carelessness

Garri and maggi dancing on my wooden floor

While the missing bag rests in the belly of waste bin

behind the blinking street lights

Iya mi

I know you are doing your best to survive

But how long are we to wait for your battle to end

When at 69, pleasure is far from you

Mother

I am weary for you

Not sad, not bitter, just weak

I know not how to give you joy

If I attempt to light you up

I may burn the what's left of you

Oh iya mi

I heard your voice last night

It lacked the will to be

I wish you rest and peace

But again, maybe that's the name we call death

How can I wish you death

Your breasts are yet to feed me

Nor mine you

29-Aug-22

©️Bolafunmi

[bolafunmi]

Fear,

The little spark that sharpens the mind

We let it breathe, and it becomes a furnace

Roaring like a one-eyed dragon

Demanding to be fed our souls

We plunge into a vivid world of chaos

behind closed lids

Holding on to heavy thoughts like baggages

Fear,

It knocks and we tumble

Head first, down an endless well of worry

Every little sound kicks our hearts out of our gaping mouths

We run without moving

Our eyes wide without seeing

Little moments stretch for eternity

Where we cease to breathe

We cease to be

Fear,

To know it is to be alive

To hold it is to slowly let go of everything that glows in us

But we are beings made of light

We do not cower at the strike of a match

We do not wither from the glare of the sun

So we say to this dragon

Your flame will not burn us today

©BolaFunmi

22-09-21

#fear #light #spark #sun

[bolafunmi]

RAIN

This is what the sky says to earth

I am here for you, constantly

With an outpouring of affection

That transcends space and distance,

In and out of season

Leaving earth moist, full and replenished to birth life and love,

and everything magic

To bloom happiness and give wings to the melody of sing song love

And the fluttering in our hearts

Rain is a song that says

I'm here for you, always

© BolaFunmi 01-Jun-2021

[bolafunmi]

Àdán

Sing the song of a budding flower

Waiting to bloom

In a land of waste

A cacophony of thorns

Circling round like vultures

A little black girl

Wishing the night away

As her stomach sings

Praying she blooms

Before she is a mom

An African child

Bearing the sins of Eve

In the silence of her mother

And angers of her father

Waiting for the rain to stop

Will the rain ever stop

Will the sun ever shine

Will the leaves ever grow

Will tomorrow ever come

Will tomorrow ever come

@BolaFunmi 2020

[bolafunmi]

YOU ASKED FOR IT

You're a woman now

Behave like a lady

Cross your legs, make your hair

Walk with grace and smile a lot

Don't complain or make a mess

You're too cold, loosen up

Be friendly, don't be rude

You're made to endure

Pain is in your DNA

Shush! don't be too loud

Or too seen, or too known

You're a woman now

You don't have to work

Use what you've got

Take his money and be his trophy

But you can't be too haughty,

Lazy bitch, you're spending his money

And you don't want to be touched or catcalled

Acting like no one is fucking you

Are you selling market?

Whore! You're dressed like one

You're a woman now

Your body is not yours

Your name is not yours

Your baby is not yours

Your time, identity or freedom

So close your legs, lock it up

Sew it up or cut it up

Your worth is in your pants

And even when it's stolen

You asked for it

©️ BolaFunmi 2021

[bolafunmi]

WHEN A GIRL DOESN'T KNOW SHE'S PRETTY

When a girl doesn't know she's pretty

It's in her eyes

She swallows her voice

And hides her soul behind her braids

You think she's shy

Her timid gait is mistaken for humility

Slumped esteem disguised as home training

She thinks she's not enough

When a girl doesn't know she's pretty

She's afraid to say No

Always in need of validation

She hides her dreams in notepads

Hidden behind her shoe rack

And drowns in filthy touch of the next man

Waiting for a fairytale to happen

Stop, girl, stop thinking you're nothing

You're the music already singing

Your voice, your dream, your aspirations matter

Don't let the world's measurement confine you

You are a spaceship girl

You don't need tyres

What is in you is more than gold

You are precious than your face, shape, hips, figure and pictures

So, When you think you're not pretty

Remember, you don't have to be their own kind of pretty

©️ BolaFunmi

July 2019

[bolafunmi]

DREAMER GIRL

There is a version of you

I never want to meet again

The one that lets go

Like there is no need to dream

Like there's no use for air

Wading through time in silence

Muffled pains and aborted screams

A lava of hurt buried deep

You are not a rusty swing

Left to creak in a ghost town

Your heart is an open door

Of enchanted stories

Soft dreams, high sails and fairies

Your days are for songs and prophecies

So dream big, take chances

And if you fall, get up and try again

©️ BolaFunmi 2021

08-4-21

#blackpoetwhopaints

#getup

#hope

#dreambig

#takechances

#livelovelaugh