I was asked to make me seen

the most difficult task

                                 —is trying to view a torn microbe with one's bare eyes.

or, how can one's retina travel like a substance which flushes

                                                                     & flows already in the invisible air?

tonight,     [as i am asked to make myself seen even in

the cascading darkness of a longer night]           i am that torn microbe,

                                i am one being who garbs itself with plethora of lives

like the melange of fabrics of the dreaded

                                         African masquerade,    and his deceptive guttural voice.

like you, i am human;

                i am many other things which i myself might not even know yet.

cast your eyes hither;                    you see a lamb, or a dove that spews love

all around.                                       and in a wink or twink of your eyes,

you see a lion:   that beast, the mutilator of the forests.             then on,

                                        and on,

in that manner,             like how a chameleon snatches clothes

from passers-by.

                        complexity is me,       i am complexity;

you cannot capture, seige or hold me down in a corner.

i am a body as glossy as a grinded okra.       when you hold me, i slither off.

yet my head is as grim as an old skeleton.      i am relatively complete—

your approach defines my response,

your ready response dictates my approach,

for the vicissitudes of this world have cooked & uncooked me.

i am now a reservoir of grains that agree with an old woman's weak teeth

and those that can break your youthful ones.

*****.   *********

Wale Adekola is a Nigerian writer, poet, novelist, screenwriter, content writer, proofreader and teacherr. He is the brainchild behind Wale Adekola Literary Space (WALS), a literary coven uniting and training writers in all genres. He lives in Ibadan, Oyo State.