By: Kolade Olawale Kabir Àdèlé
The preacher girl is a marketer, selling
Words of the scripture on a dusty
Nigerian road while sun rays
Feed on her skin.
The preacher boy is a spiritual athlete,
Winning souls into a population
Whose hearts are now fenced by
The fear of God.
—
The preacher man is a businessman, giving
Good tidings of a fictional
Home; heaven
To preacher boy
And preacher girl while
The church’s dropbox empties into
His wife’s pot.
—
Five daily prayers are Mubarak’s second breath,
Our heaviest takbir only come visiting
On days potbellied politicians
Donate our stolen future into
The fisabilillahi box.
—
Mubarak missed WAEC,
His mother’s tear didn’t cook well last night,
They missed yesterday’s dinner,
The prize for the business they know best,
— Religion
Is Jannah, preached in every Friday sermon.
—
Alas,
The fisabilillahi has done well, building
A beautiful empire on the Imam’s cheeks,
They keep growing like a lumpy, twin pregnancy.
