(For Kunle Ajibade @ 60), By Akeem Lasisi

After padlocking the phobia cage
He flung the key into the belly of his gun
The spare he banked with his Hit Man
Since for him to savour phantom peace
The truth must be jailed for life and death.
But because nature wields the ultimate key
The Caver disappeared into an eternal cave
Because nature holds the master key, Ajibade
You have lived to dance to sixty songs.

But your sacrilege had no semblance
Your crime was clearer than a crystal glass
They said your partner heard the rumour of a rumour
Of a rumour of a rumoured coup
Instead of dashing to the Junta’s press
He beckoned on your editors at a tempo high
His neck was not available the day they came for his head
But the Emperor might have no faith
He was a master of verses of bones and blood:
He would inflict the wrath of a friend on the head of a friend
Because adan the trans-species bird had proved slippery
Oobe must pay the price of life and death:
But because nature holds the master key
You have lived to anchor our robust talks.

Salt of our reading feasts,
Your voice is gentler than a drizzle’s
But you drive the discourses with a passion fierce
Osundare is a star witness –
You deconstructed his muse on the Goethe slab
Erelu had tasted your burning wit
At the novel session on her whispering texts.
In your winding critic’s world, Ajibade
There are three sides to a literary coin,
There are three sides to the page of a book!
Custodian of tertiary senses,
You hear the sound of the unwritten word
And because nature holds the master key, Ajibade
You have lived to dance to sixty songs.