OPEBI
Your fame smells sweet
Your name rings a bell and a winning spell
Your addresses open doors
Like the green ink of a rated king.
Yolk in the Lagos albumen,
Jungle is an aberration in your world of bliss
Sanity is king and peace is queen
You drip with affluence and influence still.
Whenever I visit here
I do not fail to feel the calm sensation on Toyin Street
At Gbemisola I reconnect my spirit with Abami Eda
In his museum of trumpets and prison shorts;
I find my way to Salvation end,
To meet the stars on Coliseum Night.
So, when next you hit town,
Around here you can find your way to Ibis,
Or you book a tryst with Western Best
White House or Water Parks
1960 a friend in deed:
Rain or sun, dawn to dusk
Legendary Sheraton beckons tourists with open arms.
Opebi, let me take a bow here before it’s dark
Before your birds of easy virtues
Storm your streets in skimpy wings.
(First published in ‘PHENOMENAL LAGOS: 50 Monuments in the Centre of Excellence’, by Akeem Lasisi and Kabir Garba. Now on audio while work has started on video…)
PHOTO (File) from ‘ENCOMIUM’
