(For Supo Kosemani)
Supo: Thou tie words in strings,
Stinging many rules,
Who sang their fangs into both lives and livelihood,
You sang to inform millions,
Who cared to listen,
They sort for you,
You keep sorting them out in lyrics,
To them: you are a foe,
To us: you are our ear and the mouth that bites.
Kosemani: Such essential man,
Manning the doorpost of culture,
Indispensable to the preservation of Yoruba language,
Storing his heap of words,
Beautifying his lyrics with metaphors,
Fundamental to the pain of dictators,
Unyielding to those who wanted to kill his voice.
You have travelled with your lyrics,
You deposited the strings on the sky.
Leaving the challenge to other bards,
If they would confront the challenges,
And not dance to the tune of wads,
Morally vocal through the media,
Anti-corruption activitist from the studio.
Owe lesin oro lo!
Performed at the CORA Book Trek with Akeem Lasisi at Freedom
Park.
14th September, 2014