Shoes and Sounds

Shoes and Sounds

Bata re a dun ko ko ka
Bata re a dun ko ko ka
Ti o ba mo we re
Bata re a dun ko ko ka.

What a song of mockery!
It seem the elders have but lied;
Toiled ruthlessly with our innocence
As children learning to
Tow the path of the elders,
But alas! They have only shown
To us the foolishness in being a child.

Bata re a dun ko ko ka
Bata re a dun ko ko ka
Ti o ba mowe re
Bata re a dun ko ko ka

What a promise!
Like they could see
Into the eyes of the future
And bid it play along in our quest.
 But today, what has happend to the best?

They said
If I took my time
To cross my Ts and dot my Is
That success would come before my eyes
They said if I lived by the rules
And get good grades in schools
My shoes will not drag from its soles
But what is it that have become of these promises?

Emptiness
Like space
Reality
Like the warring sea
And like the ship
In the midst of the tempest
Going through life's test.

Bata re a dun ko ko ka
Bata re a dun ko ko ka
Ti o ba mowe re
Bata re a dun ko ko ka.

Oh! What a shame
Now that reality had dawned
What a pity
How many have waited to be mourned?

Those who never
Took their time
To live by the rules,
Those who never took their brains
To live by the book
Now dance in the four walls of our chambers.
They now have crest of affluence on their chest
They say they are smart
Only the wise can lay claim to the chest.

Bata re adun ko ko ka
Bata re adun ko ko ka
Ti o ba mowe re
Bata re adun ko ko ka

Should I sing this song
To the listening ears of my son?
Should I feed him with the lies
The elders fed us with while growing up?
Should I make a rhyme of such mockery
And let him wobble in vain?

O my son
Let me teach you to be real
To understand your degrees may fail you
To understand that you only need
The mercy of God
Through your life's journey

Let me teach you to understand
That the world is full of deceit
So learn to be contented.

Shoes and sounds
Have nothing in common
They are but a myth
Never to be found in reality
But when truly
You become the best in your field
And success seems to smile on you
Know that there are so many
Who have threaded that path
But their shoes refused to make a sound.

Bata re a dun ko ko ka
Bata re a dun ko ko ka
Ti o ba mowe re
Bata re adun ko ko ka

(C) Ayinla Muyideen Adeleke

Soliloq-why

Let me be the purveyor
of words about to shape your mind.
Let me be the porter
that rings the bell to your heart's consciousness.
And when these words
hit your walls like a canon
I shall take as hostage an army of ignorance.

I shall lead the reins
but I won't force down gulps
Of this poetic fluid in your throat.
I won't ask for ransome
even if my words take as hostage
every line that makes up your page.
I shall dip my pen deep
into the inks of this theism
and spell out mono upon the blank sheets of religion,
scorn other gods, and bury their pride with words.
I shall build bridges with words
and beg His majesty for its fruition.
As I soliloquize upon this stage
where Islam fills my page
and not words of rage.
(c) Ayinla Muyideen
islamandrhymes

A night, a stranger

Here leaves another day
One which can never be revisited
Left to be buried in the sands of yesterday.

Here comes the rain
Here comes the night
With less worry of the morning's plight.
Another day, another night
Gone in the life of a stranger
Who is lost in the euphemism of an ephemeral world
While trials and tribulations grab his garment
And shreds it before his eyes.
Here is another night
Another moment for slumber
To caress the frailty of humans
Even when his eyes are awake to his struggles
A night, a stranger
Travelling a road once plied by many
Where there are meadows
And wonderful landscapes
A road where there are thorns of trials
And mountains of ambitions.
A road plied by men of different tribes and colours,
The famed and the unfamed
All of whom death did overtake.
(C) Ayinla Muyideen Adeleke
#islamandrhymes

Half of My Deen

Yes I have
I have walked that path
of longiness and of anxiety
thinking of when it would be-
to bid bachelorhood farewell
and to be inducted into the hall of Abus.

Yes I have
Just like every conscious muslim men
become weary and worrisome
to get far away as my legs could
away from the fitnah exhumed
all in the name of civilization and modernity
that has become an abyss of immorality.

I have seen
where my legs have been
that it pays to become a man
as fast as one could
before being a youth could become a curse
and rejecting the words of Allah
would become a pain to nurse.
I'd rather run as fast as my legs could
before shaytan in whispers would...

Yes I mean half of my deen
is better to all of these sins
warped around Dunyah
its deceit and calumny
could only deprive one
of the great benefit Allah Has promised.

I am still to complete mine
Just like a miner-
is still to burrow through the gold mine
I am still to call you habeeby
till the nikkah comes to be.

Here i am ready to run
as fast as my legs could
before the sun welcomes the moon
and the night becomes noon
to be the man who brings you joy
while being far away from shaytan's decoy
having completed half of my deen
with you in good deeds and not in sin.


Muyideen

(c) 2016

#islamandrhymes

Beard the Sun

Spare your beards

Like you spare the captives

Giving hope again to the natives

With words of wisdom to unsheathe-

And not terror to unleash.

Beard the Sun

When it shines at noon

And send words when you sight the new moon

That this black tiny threads

Is a sign of who we are.

Do not rebel

Or ring the bell of gloom

And let not your lips spell out doom

For as long as you beard the Sun

Our might lies on the peace we preach.

Stretch forth your hands

In obeisance to Allah

And let not this beard make people fret

Or in hatred this religion reject

But illuminate the darkness of the world

Beard the Sun

Be proud of your beard my Son

For that moment when we will be gone

And the still body the people mourn

Glad that our part on this path we’d done.