Eighteen Years, Just Like Yesterday

18 YEARS, JUST LIKE YESTERDAY. 18 years ago, just like yesterday, I remembered how it all happened. A life, his life was ebbing away with the breaking of dawn. I held him but could not hold back the fleeing spirit, swiftly taking its flight to its eternal abode. I held him but could not hold back the tears as I watched him breathed his last breath. *Erin wo lojo ojo yen, *Ajanaku subu ko le dide. The cock crowed, innocently heralding the end of an age, Of a soul, a father and a husband. He was a fighter, full of funny banter. a warrior, of no terror. He was my father, the muse who triggered poetry in me. It’s been eighteen years now, we are no more the same The teenagers have become father and mothers of men and women. The little boys have become men. The young widow has become a grandmother. And the inheritance which triggered acrimony among kith and kin, is now in shamble, a total mess, with no allurement Those who drummed the tune of discord, can no longer hold their heads tall, But the souls that suffered the hate, the sneer, have moved on Yes, for eighteen years, we have laughed together, we have played together, but we have hidden our bitterness, our hatred, our rivalry, under the shroud of deceit. Now, eighteen years is enough to heal the sores festered by rivalry, by hatred, by bitterness Eighteen years is enough to let go of many pains. Eighteen years is enough to sheathe our weapons of war. Eighteen years is enough to remember our last end, And show love to friends and foes. It’s been eighteen years, just like yesterday.