When the wind scratched me, it bore the voice of Ogun,Blades of ancestral breath slicing through my skin, Each gust a warrior’s chant, a griot’s lament,
Carving rivers of memory across my veins.
The air sang of kola-stained palms,
Of drums that wept beneath the Baobab’s gaze,
Of rebellions inked in the red soil’s womb.
And I, trembling leaf, caught in its tempest,
Became the reed that bends but never breaks.
Oh, tempestuous wind! You are no mere gale,
But the ache of a mother whose sons fell nameless,
The cry of a village burned, yet unbowed.
You scratch not flesh but history’s calloused spirit,
Whispering of kingdoms drowned in the Atlantic’s rage,
Of tongues severed but not silenced,
Of freedom swaddled in chains, yet wailing to be born.
Did you know, O Wind, that you tore my father’s agbada?
The threads unraveled like the lies of empire,
And his laughter roared louder than your howl.
You are the court jester to our defiance,
A mirror to the sky’s capricious theater.
Even now, as you claw my face,
I see the ink of Soyinka’s pen in your fury,
Metaphors tangling with your breath like restless leaves.
But there is fire in your clawed embrace, Wind.
It is the ember carried from Oyo to Harlem,
The rhythm of feet marching Selma’s bridge,
The cadence of Maya’s caged bird unbroken.
When you scratched me, you awakened the lion within,
Its roar echoing across deserts and Diasporas,
A song too vast for your tempest to scatter.
Do you hear it, Wind? The voices rising?
They are the songs of those who bore your fury,
Who turned your wrath into rhythm, your scratch into scars
That map the galaxies of resilience on their skin.
You, Wind, are not our adversary but our sculptor,
And we, your masterpieces, stand unyielding,
Rooted in the soil of those who sang to you first.
So scratch me again, O Wind, if you dare.
For each mark you leave is a hymn,
Each sting a verse in the gospel of our strength.
Let your rage be my rhythm, your claw my quill,
For I am the descendant of storms and stars,
And your tempest only sharpens my song.
By: Jide Adesina
www.1stafrika.com
December, 2024
