Tuesday Poem by Adebayo Lamikanra
A Woman’s Body
A woman’s body is
Whatever you want it to be
under the scrutiny of massive thought
It expands to fill
The limit of the most fertile imagination
A woman’s body is
A temple high up in the sky
A place of solemn worship
To be approached on bended knees
With reverence bordering on awe
There to seek shelter from the storms of life
A woman’s body is
Land, rich and dark
Flowing with milk and honey
In different places at appointed times
For the nourishment of body and soul
A woman’s body is
A long winding road
Leading to the bliss of paradise
Or the tortuous undergrowth
Of perdition from where there is
No hope of rescue or joyous return
A woman’s body is
A granary packed full of wondrous seeds
Release one at a time in the ripeness of the moon
And mourned over with tears of blood
When wasted
A woman’s body is a furrow
Which when ploughed
And planted in season
Yields a gravid harvest
That brings joy and fulfilment
A woman’s body is a refuge
A snug hiding place
A secure incubator for successive
Generations waiting to be born
To take the place of those gone before
A woman’s body is a celestial courthouse
For the interpretation of natural laws
Within which justice
Impartially dispensed
Leaves no room for appeal
A woman’s body is an ocean
On which the careless
Or the unprepared sail at their own peril
It is an ocean plagued by storms
Which wreak havoc of titanic proportions
On those not blessed with favour
A woman’s body is a jungle
Slumbering in the shade of giant trees
Through which birds of fantastic plumage
Frolic with joyous abandon trilling with songs
Pleasing to the soul
It is a veritable jungle
With the occasional beast of prey
Patrolling its arboreal corridors
Seeking who to devour
A jungle fit to be lost in, irretrievably
A woman’s body is a volcano
Nestling on the highest snow clad peak
Mostly quiescent but simmering
Waiting to erupt mightily
Creating incandescent streams of lava
When provoked
A woman’s body is
Whatever you care for it to be
Given that it can expand to fill the whole wide world
Causing the earth to spin on its axis
As it rushes madly around the life giving sun.