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Nuptial Steps
Shortly seeking to take you
As a witty in-law,
I am in anticipation.
Do you vow to:
Love and to cherish
Keep your sweetheart
Free of bruises?
Hold her in
Sickness and health
In wealth and poverty
Till death do you part?
My sister and her family
Come as one parcel
We sell not our daughters
To men of the night.
The night of your cross-over
The scorpions that sit on the road
Will be cursed!
The witch that holds the fallopian tube
Banished
The broken plates
Packed with a flourish!
That night of your celebration
I’m rebuking the okra
That will not draw
In Tosan’s pot (tafia!)
Cursed be the palm oil
That will not whiten
When bleached
Cursed be the tangled bedspread
To trip your legs
On your mattress!
Together, the gods will unite
In your case,
We shall blow the horn
Of joy
On that beautiful day.
As I eagerly seek to take you
As loving in-law
I am in haste!
Copyright ©
Damilola Olaniyi
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