A View Of a view by Funso Aiyejina

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From the babylonic heights

of a Lagos high rise hotel

with balconies overlooking dawn

(a silver canvas on the Atlantic),

my eyes threaded the horizon

to a fisherman in the distance

silent and erect in his dug-out

as he prepares to cast his net

before the arrival of trawlers,

patient and stoic, like death

waiting for the appropriate tide

to come ashore with the ultimate gift

for the hotel’s resident five-star guests

(chameleons with wardrobes for all occasions)

whose coded lives are made purer and safer

by the equivocation of every official probe.