If my foremost dreams
Like ignited pyre in The height of harmattan
Briskly burn into ashes
Watch still my path…
That from the debris of time
I may bloom a new
Like saxifrage at the
Dawn of spring and
Shame the jinx
Hovering above my head.
Olawale Obadeyi
EDITOR’S NOTE
Originally published in Nigeria Magazine on 01 Apr 1987, p. 88. This diplomatic transcription preserves the wording and lineation visible in the archived page.