22 Road Festac Town

22 Road Festac Town

We walked in-between closes on barefoot

Rolling tyres and flying kites

Building friendship, grooming brothers

On empty pockets with no hopes

I am still that Festac boy

Shaking hands and mending fences

We went to school with our broken crayons

Faded singlet and rubber sandals

At 3^rd Avenue, Nazareth pry, growing in wisdom, age and Grace

I always look forward to our short breaks

Where I would lick tanfuli, babadudu and ice cream with 50kobo

We were fine, hale and hearty

Mother prepare-th a cane in front of my assignments

House was fun but home was better

We were 6 and I wasn’t the brighter one

Chinonye, Ugochukwu, Chidoziem, Chiamaka, Oluchi and Chukwuka

That’s the line up formation on how food was served

And I ate the largest

Peter would come knocking on Saturdays

We were always in the field playing catch-er

Pilolo, police and thief

Tobechi would climb the mango tree

Sobaifo and Jindu would sit around playing suwe

Where television to watch the premiership sef

We would stroll with our 2 different slippers

Watching as the day unfold

At 4pm, I would visit Bimpe in Flat 5

To watch the evening cartoons

Painted white on black Television

That was the best we could get

And when I remember my childhood dreams

The Medical Doctor I had wanted to become

The Rev’d Father I had dreamt to become

The Naval officer I had thought to become

The becoming and the unbecoming

Were only written with chalk on a black board.

By Doziem Nwaeze