FROM THE VOICE OF THE JUNGLE POET

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MY JOURNEY TO THE GAMBIA I

At early month of twenty ten
I left abode with bulky bags
From Lagos then to Banjul zone
To panel-beat and clothe the rags...

At airy port I had to wait

Till second day after delays...

At checking point a wander stroked -

Some business men were finding ways

To lobby with a gentle soul

Sanusi - Mall from northern zone.

At last he saved like empty bowl

Because he frowned and pressed the horn...

Again wanders from Mister Pen -

His step on plane is just the Day -

The day he moved beyond the lane...

He sat on seat eleven A.

The cabin crew instructed board

The dos and don'ts of Arik trip

Like fastening belt of every head

And offing phone for safety drop....

Beside the poet two gentle souls

A man and wom... with friendly chat

But busy poet on piling says

The former kin and latter host

After some mins the cabin came

With first a drink and later food

The juice, the egg and bready cream -

Like hunting dog my kin swallowed...

In bird I penned with shaken heart

When saw nothing but cloudy sky

- My velum moved like pit-a-pat -

And just the sound of butterfly...

After some mins the doze arived

To visit him - the hungry ram;

Under disguise my book he read

At last the doze lulled him to calm…

A wander came again from kin -

I mean my kin beside the host

precisely when he pressed 'the man'

Above our head to call 'our host’....

To learn again I went to back

To drop the waste - the watery waste -
The wander there was sudden bark

Of closet for the button tapped...

From riverside to riverside

There's nothing free in freedom-town.

In past it may but now it's damned -

The Sierra Leone - a warful zone...

From Freedom-town we flew again

With airless lung and shakeless heart

But coldly prayed for sugar-cane

As some arrived and some depart...

As usual, see!, the cabin came -

With dounot came a cup of tea ....

For thirty mins - an hour emh...

The Banjul showed like missing key!

I wandered last the tasks ahead -

Will what I have b'enough for them?

As kin advised I strongly prayed -

For creative mind to make me firm....

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To panel-beat - to teach, Mall- Mallam (an islamic scholar) pressed the horn- shouted
eleven A - a seat number in the Arik airline
Arik – a Nigeria international airline, bird –airplane, butterfly- airplane
wom... - woman
mins - minutes kin - Nigerian host -Gambian 'the man'- a button in the Arik plane for alert
'our host' - the cabin crew the watery waste - urine; b'nough - be enough

MY JOURNEY TO THE GAMBIA II

MY JOURNEY TO THE GAMBIA II

But what I met was vice versa -
My thinking was to start the job,
But Tunji said - my journey far
I shook as if I needed herb...

For rivers crossed or cloudy seen?
My people left or signed out work;
Or places where I'd never beeing?...
I souly cried like beaten cork...

The second day I saw Bundung -
From school to school for teaching sake...
Banjul, Bakau and Old Jeshwang...
With Sirah till I shouted ache....

But luckily on Sa-tur-day,
The Nusrat School requested me-
To teach a class and just display,
Some stuff in me like grammar key -

I did my best with Chomsky's wit
And Halliday's in learning room...
The teachers there with learning kit
But money flows like drying stream...

I later heard another miew
From stadium side for interview...


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Tunji-- the man that invited the
poet for teaching in the Gambia

Bundung: A place where Nusrat school is
located
Bajul, Bakau, Old Jes...: places in the Gambia

Sirah: Sirah Sanneh, the Seretary and marketer of
Tunji, a deceptive man.