Tuesday Poem by Toni Kan
Who do you think you are? – The Mayor sings for himself by Toni Kan
I
I am the man who Kan
Father, son and lover
The one they call Mayor
II
They call me father
Awele
Chuka &
Ify
I see the big nose
I take in the pointed chin
I know without a doubt
That these are the fruits of my loins
III
I am Oyibo’s son
Brain pickled by Alzheimer’s
She forgets my name
The son who nursed at her teats
This son who misses her mother
With an ache that threatens
To splinter the heart
Rend it in two like the Temple veil
IV
I am the lover man
The one who comes first,
Everywhere, except in bed
Mister Lover-lover
Finger tips febrile with heat
I sire goose bumps with my touch
And my kisses are dripping honey combs
I love like a giddy teenager and
Manic with passion I rage all night
Like Ogun high on wine and semen
V
They call me Mayor
Jolly Papas and Barons of Broad street
This man who found Lagos in his 20s
And claimed it for his own
Home may not be hearth
But wherever Isu sets down his burden becomes home
This is home, this city where I lay down my burdens
Like the Iroko, I have set down roots deep into this city
And Las Gidi looked me in the eye and christened me Mayor.