Tile Tersoo Poet Free verse

EVERYONE IS A VILLAGE MAN

Before the city grew teeth of storeys,
Every road was  once a footpath of dark earth,
Every skyline a village dream feigning height.


The whirlwind arrives like an ancestral drum,
Beating zinc roofs into memory,
While the soil drinks  without question.


Maize rises like angry dust,
Crops sleep beneath the earth like buried wealth,
The old iroko keeps census of generations.


We call ourselves urban, as if asphalt
Could bleach the village from our blood,
As if language could divorce us from reality.


Every man carries an ancestral footpath,
Every woman a forgotten rib in the bones,
Every last name is a door to somewhere rural.


The city is only a village that learnt to disguise itself,
And civilisation, perhaps, is merely distance,
From the stream that first taught us to swim.


When the rain smells of the earth,
Listen keenly—the village speaks through you;
Everyone is a village man, even in hired suits.


From Vandeikya to Eko sluthers the same rhythm,
Only the midriff of imagination pats on them.

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Tile Tersoo September 13, 2026 at 12:35 AM “Everyone Is a Village Man” is a reflective poem about origins, identity, memory, and the illusion of urban civilisation. It argues that beneath the skyscrapers, Through images of rain, soil, crops, ancestral trees, footpaths, and zinc roofs, the poem suggests that no amount of civilisation can erase one's roots. Ultimately, the city is portrayed as nothing more than a village that has learnt to disguise itself, while every individual carries an invisible ancestral footpath within.