Beauty. (Video)

Here's the beautiful rendition of the Poem 'Beauty' by Nzuri.
Watch. :)

Beauty

Hello Everyone. Today we have 'Beauty' - a Poem by Nzuri. Read and Enjoy.

Like fire, just like fire
Weapon of man's inhumanity to man
Mama says beauty comes in all shapes,
sizes and colors

Spite filled eyes,
They tell me there's only one type of beauty
And mine doesn't belong
Tears in my eyes I'm wondering why I can't Marilyn Monroe the pain

Scalded skin, eyes of a newborn; shy, unaccustomed to the light
I can't see the sunshine
Mama said the bomb wasn't meant for me The bomb exploded my flesh into sacrifice.

Singing in tune with the moon as it traveled over our heads
Mama rocks me back and forth singing to me 'you are beautiful'
She says beauty is the type that runs skin deep

Come on!
Get up on your relentless shoes! Learn to not be afraid
She reprimands

The bomb that came a little to early,
My infant feet that waddled a little too much
The help that came a little too late
Everybody is at the wrong place at the wrong time

Wrapping me close to her bosom
Eyes wide shut
I feel the bleaching sun burn the insides of my back
Warmth emanates from her bosom
Stilling the restless poisoned butterflies in my stomach

Pay no mind to the ashes
They are barely evidence
Of how brightly you can glow
With refulgent energy
She says

An uncontrollable desire to escape
A sickness firmly bound to freedom
Mama says true beauty is like words from a love letter

Singing in tune with the moon as it traveled over our heads
Mama rocks me back and forth singing to me 'you are beautiful'
She says beauty is the type that runs skin deep

I'm Learning to not be afraid
An uncontrollable desire to escape
The grave incident changed me
Scaring me beyond my skin

It seems like it was just yesterday
The air redolent of burning flesh
My flesh
Four surgeries and two months of rehab

A sickness firmly bound to freedom
Let the incense burn on both ends
I didn't ask to be a victim of man's cruelty to man

Can I get an escape route please?
Death maybe?
Death doesn't always taste good
It certainly isn't what I want to eat soon

Having calculated the rudiments of beauty
The world found me wanting
Teasing and taunting
Maudlin expressions of sympathy
They are oblivious to your type of beauty mama says

At first there were different clothes
Longer sleeves to hide the burn scars
I slowly realized that my family had changed too

Scars and skin grafts
My Mother looks at the monster I have become and calls me beautiful
Could the image in my perfidious mirror perhaps be different from what my mother sees?
Surely there is no beauty in my burns and scars

Dad who has retreated to himself barely looks at me
Beneath the scars
Its me Dada
Your last born daughter
I'm still here

Rusty anchors they are
Shiny gem you are Mama says
There is no space for your kind of beautiful here.

You are a staccato hymn
Sung in the midst of a world that has forgotten how to value silence

Mama says loving yourself for who God made you is by far the greatest expression of beauty.
I think my Mother is beautiful.

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This poem is strongly influenced by the works of three of my favorite Poets and contains some lines and phrases characteristic of said Poets. The Poets : Joshua Bennett and King Jasmine Mans of The Strivers Row and Sunni Patterson are incredibly talented individuals that i look up to.

  - Bunmi Victoria Adegboye

The Assassin.

I work in the dead of night,
when the streets are quiet and no one is around to track my moves.
Racing the yellow lights to find the gate open,
she's waiting in the room and so I just step on through.

You get in, you get done and then you're gone.
You never leave a trace, or show your face.
Should've turned around and left before the sun came up
but then it did come up.

Enter the morning light,
burning the curtains and the wine.
Stuck in a little white room with her head heavy on me,
her heavy breathing is the prevailing sound.

You get in, you get done and then you get gone.
You never leave a trace, or show your face.
Should've turned around and left before the sun came up
but then it did come up.

Suddenly I'm in over my head and I can hardly breathe.
Suddenly I'm floating over her bed and I feel everything.
Suddenly I know exactly what I did, but I can not move a thing.
And suddenly I know exactly what I've done and what it's gonna mean.

I was a killer,the best they'd ever seen
I'd steal your heart before you ever felt a thing
I'm an assassin and I had a job to do
Little did I know the girl was an assassin too.

-Mazeeno

Save Me, Please? [MNTG]

"Love is like skydiving, with the parachute in the hands of the beloved" – Maze.

Don’t let me fall. I will crash land. I have nothing, no-one to hold on to. 

Save me, please.

Heavenly Father, I am nothing without this man. 

He has captured my heart, intricately and carefully woven his person into the shadows of my heartstrings. I have been mesmerized with him, or rather, the idea of him. He has left me with nothing but bits and pieces of my heart I am willing to love him with, still. He is everything I need. I cannot but feel this way. I cannot not feel this way.

Save me, please.

I have taken a deep plunge, a dive into the dimension called emotion and love, I know nothing of it. It's an alternate universe. I am hopelessly, hopelessly in love with you. You need to rescue me, please, I beg of you. Hurt has been my middle name, Walls having been my only comfort and warm blanket, sheltering me from cold nights, and holding me in place for my pillow of Loneliness as my tears fall night after night and wet it, even as I clutch my stuffed animal, Desolation close. 

Save me, please.

I need to get out of this body, switch souls, suppress and murder these feelings; reminiscing does me no good… you have to help me. I feel wretched, deserted, and all I can do is feel that way. 
Alone.

I am hanging on to dear life as I poise on the precipice of nothings and everythings. You cannot leave me now. 

Save me, please.

You are my carotid artery. 

Do you not feel it; do you not feel this symphony we should have strum together, created as one?

I don't want to, but I do; it is inevitable. 

You've done this, now I'm undone. 

Finished me, now I'm incomplete.

Love is alien and cacophonous to me, filled with empty promises, champagne-colored velvet torn to shreds and burnt to ashes, in every instance. I belong to the world of empty beds, tearful cheeks and forced smiles. 

Save me, please.

Sound your timbrels just as surely; play a melodious tune, serenade my sorrows; trace my palms, entwine your fingers in mine and watch the meanders become one; make my dreams come alive. 

Save me, please.

Sometimes we have to lose who we are, or are hoping to be, to be with whom we love, to be who we are meant to be.

Michael Jackson lost his childhood for a greater cause:  stardom, world applause...he achieved all that and spent the greater part of his life trying to get his childhood back.

Victor, my best friend, lost his soul trying to get to the top... it was a 'Get rich or die trying' scheme.

David, that stranger I could have known, lost his adolescence after falling in love with an older woman, trying to mature for her... and lost her trying.

I have lost my heart trying to be with you; my smoke-and-mirrors person coming to light, my shadows being pierced by light. Light of your unrequited love.

Save me, please.

I don't know what I am, what I'm not, what I'm meant to be. I thought I did when I was beside you, and I was not wrong. You need to save me. You need to. I cannot lose you, just as certainly as I cannot lose me...

Assuage my demons. Put them to rest. Give me the heavens I see in your eyes. 

Save me, please?

As I lay down my head to sleep, I pray, my soul to keep… if I die

before I wake… well, you know the rest.

-        Ms. Koya

Stay Young Forever [MNTG]

- For Moyo 

Stay young forever, I don't want you to ever grow up...he said to me.
Be my baby, be my little sister, that's all I ever want you to be.
Love me forever, and no-one else, love for me in your eyes is all I want to see...
But I can't.

I can't love you alone, brother, for there must be another, beckoning to my heart.
My love for you will neither wane nor wither but I want a love 'til death do us part.
I have been broken, I have seen pain, seen anguish.
Oh, in despair, in limbo have I languished.
I have wallowed, waded and waited patiently for it; whatever it is, I don't know.
What I am certain of, however, is that my heart longs so.

Longs so very much, for that all consuming feeling.
Embedded in tenderness, in truth, sincerity, and security, tugging.
Tugging, firmly and surely on my heartstrings
Not a fairytale or fantasy, but the real thing.

I just want to love and be loved back.
Is that too much to ask?

So, no Brother, I can't stay young forever, even in mind.
Because a love that knows no bounds even of time I must find.


- Ms. Koya

Why - Ms Koya [MNTG]

You can't claim to love me and trump my dreams.
You can't claim to adore me and destroy all I am and want. 
You can't claim to be affiliated with my heart and soul and not know who I am.
You can't claim to have affection for me and want to hurt me on purpose.

Why?

You don't know me.
You're nothing like me.
You're a liar, a cheat, a heartless, inane human.
Scratch that, you're no human.
You're a monster, a beast, an entity devoid of emotion and feeling.
Leading me on to believe you were light, love and all I ever needed, then shattering my heart, breaking it into little shards, bits and pieces, obliterating me beyond redemption.
Hurting and hurting me, snuffing the life out of me.
You kill my joy; ever content to cast me into hell and watch me die over and over again, wallowing in little whirlpools of oblivion.
You don't requit my love and adoration and worship.
You've turned your back, with no regrets.

Why?

Look Into My Eyes - Ms Koya [MNTG]

 

Pull me aside and look into my eyes
What do you see?
Nothing but dark smoldering beauty, you say?
Do you not see the pain, the anguish embedded in them?
Do you not see the grief hidden behind my eyelashes?
Do you not see the tales untold?
Do you not see the fake smiles stored up and ready to spring up at will in my pupils?
Do you not see the hope, faith, hurt, determination, fears, love, potentials, insecurities, strengths, weaknesses?
Do you not see what makes me, me?
Me, the last Tayo Orekoya daughter.
Me, the frail prematurely birthed baby.
Me, the convulsing little girl, physically seeing what others couldn't see, the fear of losing me burned into my parents' minds.
Me, the fear in my young heart and mind holding me captive; after another turbulent night filled with fitful sleep, monsters and ghouls.
Me, the worshipful kid sister of her brother.
Me, the rebellious deviant soul of a teenager.
Me, the kind hearted, smart, adorable, young woman I want to become.
Me, my soul's penury, oblivion and redemption.
Me, the delicate shards called my heart, broken into smitherens, and scattered in different directions.
Me, the protective love I have for my best friend, my sister.
Me, the pride and love in my father's eyes, as I excel in various spheres of my life, from crayons to a first-class.
Me, the pain and love in my mother's eyes as she struggles to make me a better person.
Me, the spawn of greatness, the shoes people have to fill.
Me, the music that proceeds into my ears and out of my mouth; the melodious tunes serenading and waltzing with my sorrows.
Me, the dark angry persona, afraid of attachment and commitment, lost and without emotions.
Me, the joy of many generations.
Me, the tears I shed for the loss of my grandmother; the grief and fear hidden in secret cupboards and shadows.
Me, the curious little girl, now the assertive young woman.
Me, my wild and free imagination, running loose.
Me, the blessed to be a blessing.
Me, my past, my present, my future.
Me, who I am, who I'm not, who I want to be.
Me, God's little treasure.
Now, look into my eyes.
What do you see?

Save Me - Temitayo

Hi there readers. :) We welcome a new guest writer, Temitayo. Read and enjoy.

I don't want to be scared of feeling these feelings again
I long to embrace them with no restrain
But the baggage from my past pose as obstacles
All my fears, steady doing the tackle

'Cause them ones promised one thing but delivered another
They were supposed to be there but turned away without a bother.
Seems like happiness is an endless struggle for me
I just want you to disappear and let me be

Moments with you, are brief but feel like heaven
Times when you gaze at me and I blossom
Times when white hot anger and hatred are all I can feel for you
How I dread going down this all too familiar road

I get glimpses of what you truly feel for me
But this paranoia is like a blindfold
Shutting out your love, only letting in my doubts
I'm bound by these ropes of insecurity and disappointment

Save me from my past
Faces in my mirror jeering at me
Constantly reminding me of what my heart has been through
The kind of hurt and let down it has managed to pull through
I'm just waiting on you to confirm my deepest fears
But what I truly need is for you to take off this blindfold and dry these tears

Tired of having to pick up pieces of my heart on my own
Its hanging by a thread and won't act on these things it feels for you
So don't allow me push all your affection away
This time let's put it back together and heal it with your love

Prove to me they're not all cowards
I'm too young to be feeling this much pain
Make me believe again
Save me.

- Temitayo
 (@Asiia_x)

The Key - Ms. Koya [MNTG]

Throwback poem of mine ^_^

I look out through the window pane
Peeping out through the curtains
Thoughts scared and running wild
Little melodramatic pictures floating through my mind.
I'm scared of what the future holds
When we, we but mere mortals assume supremacy
Supremacy even amongst ourselves invoking no diplomacy
We consider the good things bad, or sad.
A concoction of prolonged boredom and weirdness ?

Hmmm.

Rebellion is bravado in its own right.
You, being the Herculean demi-god, radiating light
Everyone going one way and you going another
With you not bothering to look back, or take a breather.
The defiance sending odd little shocks and cold shivers down their spines.
Their ears tingling as they hear of your stance and perceive your adamance.

So rise up! They cannot restrain you, or keep you down.
Chin up! Don't be disheartened, despondent, or even wear a frown.
Uneasy, they say is the head that bears the crown.

The greats do not follow but lead
You cannot reap without sowing a seed.
When life gives you lemons, make an extra buck.
It is not about serendipity, or even luck.

Normality is far from greatness
Life challenges you but won't help you pass the test.
Your achievement in life is limitless, take it from me.
There are many doors, but difference is the key.

- Ms. Koya

@taymie_GVO

Musings Of A Nigerian Teenager

We have a guest writer. Here's Bunmi from last week's 'Poor Guys: Dating Material?' Read, enjoy and be inspired.

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The nation of 'Up Nepa' and 'Our Transformer don blow'
The nation of Danfo stickers that read 'God dey' 'No be me na papa God' 'Wabilahi Taofek'.

A peculiar nation. The nation of Azikwe, Bola Ige, Soyinka, Achebe, Saro Wiwa, Dele Giwa, Ironsi, Gani Fawehinmi. *raises celebration glass*

The nation where PHCN unfailingly sends a monthly bill, despite my being on alternative electricity 23 1/2 hours of each day. The only country where cars from all around the manufacturing world daily grace our pot holled roads.
The nation of "...omo Naija ni mi. Naija l'obi mi si. Naija ni mo ti bere si ni ka ABC..."
The only nation of the sprinting olympics worthy gala/recharge card/tom tom/handkerchief/pirated cd's/car charger hawkers.

The nation of 'I better pass my neighbor generators'

The Green and White Nation
The nation of wazobia
The nation of overtly religious men and women forever waiting for their own 'big break'
The nation of Kilishi, Suya and Mr Biggs
The nation of ridiculous and pointless 'go slow'
The nation of owo, ego, kudi
The nation of Fela, Fuji, King Sunny Ade, Lagbaja, Dagrin

The nation of 'Owambes' and 'aso ebi'

923,768 Square kilometers of 521 languages
Home of eba, amala, iyan, lafu, tuwo, akpu, kunu, zobo, afang soup, egusi and miyan yakuwa.
The nation of THISDAY style and Elan
Oh great Nigeria of Okin biscuits and Olasco films

The nation that survived the Biafra war and the Abacha regime

Nigeria is all these things and a carton of Indomie noodles
The only place we outdo ourselves with the non-existent level of enthusiasm and optimism
Nigeria I hail thee.

Bunmi Victoria Adegboye.

The Reaper

We welcome Konyinsola again, readers. Read and enjoy.
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Death knows neither pomp nor pageantry, neither poverty nor penury.
The reaper cares not who the devil sends for
He just creeps in unexpected and takes his victim,sometimes with grotesque gore

Death has no loyalty or friends
He ends the life of the young and old
Nothing more than grief and pain he sends
Could even take an angel, if foretold

The easiest of his prey are dealers
Money chasers who sell their souls for big houses and huge pillars
He watches patiently for a decade
For when it's the tenth year, he has his fun

Sipped the life of my friend at a tender age
Looking back, I just fill with rage
While the reaper laughs and plays with his scythe
Takes a look at his death list, and smirks
For another helpless victim is in the works

Could it be you?
Say a prayer before bedtime too.
Could it be me?
The reaper, with his malevolent eyes not be me he sees.

-Konyinsola 

(@KonYInsola_)

The Girl Who Cried Wolf

She has become a stranger
She's a shadow of herself
All I can do is wonder
Could this be her true self

She craves pathetically for attention
Look at me, look at me
She seems to scream
Her desperation leaves a lingering smell

She says she is ravaged by demons inside
I sigh and say your drama is overplayed
She claims she is tired of the world
I retort the world is tired of you

The white man's sickness is a fad to her
'I am bipolar', she happily sings
She knows not what I suffer through
No one knows nor understands my pain

She says she wants to die
That she'll swallow five sleeping pills
I shake my head, that is not enough
Ten for the hospital, twenty for the morgue

But alas she still breathes
Another false alarm
Her empty threats bore me
Pull the trigger so I know it's real.

She shows me a lone scar on her arm
She says 'I've started to self harm'
I smile and consider showing her my scars
The beautiful works of art that mar my ebony skin

Control yourself, I scream at her
We all have our personal woes
Just tilt your head and smile
Make the world think that everything is alright

Look at me, I want to say
My dimpled smile, my gleeful laugh
Hide the madness that lays inside
But my words fail me

Your ramblings draw no sympathy
Their concern is as fake as your disorder
Stop feeding yourself with lies
What you think, you will soon come to believe

Perhaps I am cold
But I know I'm right
The truly disturbed
Do not announce their plight

A few words 'you'll be fine dear'
And she's pacified
Whereas I need colored pills to get through the day
To dull the ache that threatens to never end

Imposter, pretender, shammer
She has become everything I despise
Each cry for help is a plea for attention
She is the girl who cried wolf.
 
-Eyitope
 (@MissAbati)

Being Forced - Hales

Hey there readers. Rebel Flair welcomes Hales, a guest writer. Read and enjoy.

You hardly even knew me,

So why'd you have to show me?
Why'd you throw me down,
And not allow me make a sound?
Is that why you stayed after?
To cause this whole disaster?
I was just a teen,
Did you feel good about yourself?

Time Might Tell

Rebel Flair welcomes Konyinsola, as a guest writer. Read and Enjoy!
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My Failures, a never ending pit
I wallow in, for lack of a haven.
I wonder if it's a catalyst
Or it's the devil playing Kevin hart with me.

Serendipity skipped my mail box.
Perhaps I shouldn't have coloured my threshold with a lamb's blood.

Now, I shut every door at every corner,
Dreading the too-familiar 'what if' questions.
and the same scenario plays out in my head over and over again.

I am restrained, I am stagnant.

Mirror Mirror [MNTG]

Hey there readers! MNTG is hosting another guest writer -- A boy this time! ^_^

Okay, so this poem was written based on a plea to the Creator to restore the old him for just a brief farewell, if only that.

The Mirror looks at me with Disgust

The Person staring back at me isn't me

For Death took over that person at all costs

The one friend I had I threw away

Allowing the Earth's Vanity to shield me from my reality 

My actions regrettable, for karma's dolorous blow knocked me out

Repugnant - Ms. Koya [MNTG]

Repugnant you call me, repugnant you say I am.
When I approach you, you glare at me with contempt, disgust, pity almost.
Your face scrunched up with emotions running through it, like rats through broken walls of Egyptian ancient ruins.
You say I'm the spawn of beasts; I have nothing but monsters for ancestors.

But when you're dangling at the edge of a cliff, with nothing to hold on to; when you are lost; with no guidance, with no hope of redemption, who do you call?

Me: whom you've spat on, whom you've ridiculed, whom you've scarred with your horrendous words, stabbing me with you're atrocious looks.
Me: whom you've called deformed, hideous and grotesque... Now you call me, reach out to me, plead and grovel, helpless and desolate.

Well...because I am lovely, not in the conventional way that you and your kind only recognize, but on the inside; where the flame of my beauty is ignited by the lighter of love and forgiveness; I reach out to your aid to prevent your perishing.

So you see... you are the hideous one.
You, my old new friend...are repugnant.

She - Ms Koya

[This one is dedicated to a good friend of mine]

She loves me, she loves me not.

Night and day, she blows cold and hot.

She was a leprechaun, a chameleon

As fleeting as a skewed dandelion.

She hurt me, pushed me to the edge

She left me on the precipice, hanging over the ledge

Love and emotions strengthening my hold.

As I watched her leave me in the cold.

She was my archenemy, yet my other half.

She cackled as we struggled, a piercing laugh.

I was hurt like never before, I didn't understand.

I tried to find her, tried to grab her hand.

But she turned away, with no words to be said

As all hell was set loose and running in my head.

She didn't know it, but she killed me all over again

With no ammunition needed, just her ambiance, wielding pain.

As I masked my hurt by being plain,

She watched me turn away where I had lain.

With my perception gradually slipping away, 

I realised she wasn't mine, come what may.