I Live Miles Away - 100 Days Poetry Challenge Day 9

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I Live Miles Away

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I live miles away from the city
where the streets are paved with clay
And bicycle tires, sink when it rain
Not ever a Naira stray. On a good day
you could pick a cigar butt

Beat-up cars loiter
about the walkway, doors knocked in
Headlights that beat the eyes to stare downs
Bumpers falling out, like a teenager
who wears his jeans sagged

If you listened closely, you'll hear
It cursing your fate, for being unlucky

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Fate belonged in the church, the mosques
Relegated to the spiritual and superstitious
If the kids were to pick, they would jump
High and aiming, for the womb of a city mother

Wishful thinking, no one gets to pick
The family or place they live

Even the birds here, do not sing
They speak in murmurs, in complaining chirps
On a rusty pole or up a tree, the leaves fallen
Here the dogs do not bark,
Not even up a wrong olive tree
Cause here, there are no olive trees

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So when you saw a beat up cab
You paid your fare, sat in twos at the front
And imagined a life in a city, miles miles away

Not too fast, for the reverie is short lived
Pot holes never allowed for day dreams

Here, electricity is a miracle
At the hands of imposing misters
Produced by generators, powered by diesel
At 7 pm , a head would absently nod,
To the groans of gears as they pressed together

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The fences, never complete a rectangle
If complete, the bricks have see through
Holes and are missing a gate
Not that the burglar would care
There was little these houses offered

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Original poetry by @fego

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