They say
why do you dance
When all about you is the music of chaos?

What gives you joy
In this grim place,
Where we bury dreams
Wasted on people whose love is forgotten?

What is your hope?
What is your audacious confidence
In the midst of this calamity?

Talo gunyan fun e to ni t’obe oshoro?
(Who pounded yam for you and said the stew is a small thing)

We say
Jesu Ni!
Akobi inu awon oku
(it is Jesus, First born among the dead)

Our hope is a monument
Built on the foundation
of God’s unyielding character
That lying is an edifice He would never raise
Deceit is not an entry in His divinity

One time – He called light as He looked into the waters
Darkness heard him and repented
Instantly colours unshackled itself from the depth of chaos
Ascended and took a bow

Saying: I honour your decree
To divide the day and the night

One time Peter called onto him
And water forgot physics
The law bowed before the Lord
Who made a water walker out of a sinking saint

Mary called upon him
And water forgot chemistry
Became wine as molecules bubbled in hosanna
To Him who comes in the name of the Lord

We are not alone, not now, not ever
We have touched Him
Flocked with Him feather for feather

So we occupy still

The seas of sorrows shall not stop us
The darts of deceit will not deter us
Persecution will not quench us
Bones of His bones
Sons of God colonizing the flesh

God’s word is the surest gambit
A gambler’s haven
God’s house always wins

This is why we will continue to rejoice
Even till Maranatha,
Until He comes

First published in Under the Influence (First Edition, 2026).

Editor’s note: This poem is the Assurance representative from Under the Influence (First Edition, 2026).