Maybe Because I've Forgotten

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When I was ten
In the shacks of one ghetto ruin
I raised my head to see the orange sun
Sinking down a distant horizon

I thought of mama and nothing more
She will be home waiting
Scouting the faces of people for me
I ran home with a paper fan hung on a broomstick
Those evenings defined my childhood

When I was twenty
At the brink of my ambitious youth
I'd seen the blue sky one morning
From the little window of my dark room
I thought of mama and nothing more
The licking roof and cracked walls of her village home
The years of suffering wrinkled on her ageing face

That morning at the wake of dawn
She had placed her shivering hands on my head
And blessed me from her sacred heart

In dignified silence I prayed
The prayer of the dreamer boy
I will be great someday
To wipe all her tears away

This morning I'd woken up homesick
A longing to be in her warm embrace
Maybe because I've forgotten
The road which leads home

I'd just dropped a long call
Sad tears gathered in my eyes
Mama died last night

© Olatuja Oloyede