Adesua by Onuchukwu Joseph Chimezie

Adesua, the bush lamp oil that refuses to dry

Your mild beams, sun dry leaves to life

You are the opening of new foliage

The happy song of chirping birds

Overfed with milky grains

Adesua, daughter of my natal earth

 

I will sing your name like a minstrel

Draw the woodpecker out of door

Chant the forest’s core and my kindred

With the juggling drums of my love

 

You that burnt your fingers for me

You that lie with empty stomach just for me to eat

The first cock crow met you at the stream

With a beaker of water for me

 

Adesua, pristine foliage of roosting sun

The Osier that beams in my nights

Tramping in the forest of thorns

I would sing you a lullaby if you were a child

 

Who will say the antelope has a better shawl

Or the dappled leopard with chameleon skin

Which changes with the sunny rills from the raw

Than your melanin like water, rinse on the reaps

 

Adesua, my hilltop sunflower

Dancing in resplendent twirls

No broken seed, no bursting powder

Nor the surreal sun that wilts on the hill

 

I will seek you beyond the shadow of the aging moon

Our love shall bloom from the depth

I’ll bathe you with coconut water and rinse your hue