Pawn

By

George O. Obikoya


The board floats in dodgy places too
In time they play as much they choose
Sometimes wary, but also often corny
Even as either way the truth is gaping

Here I am budding, thrilled but leery
With the game in progress a charade
And wonder unfolds to hide my pain
Still I try to come to warm their souls

Misery relives the moment of shame
Lamentation poisons my fluid milieu
While at times the joy I bring prevails
When to end my tenure fails to reign

Then the moment comes for me to see
To wish it never was or revel in peace
Time too short nails once more my fate
And at last my new truth dawns in vain

Nothing is going to change now I say
That my pain remains the same I pray
Not least to leave my home in shame
One maybe is worse than being in pain

Bugs seek me out even in my cradle
Some tinier than what tiny can be to me
Unsure if they steal me before or now
Or bang me against a signpost to wit

It matters not that they leave me soaked
To bear the sour that eats my soul away
Not even that they drug me to slumber
Their own that becomes my own again

It is a game to play to win it seems to me
Even as the loser has no say in the game
And no one really wins in the end I say
Chasing the shadow that they fail to see

For now I cry for a fate so mean my own
To watch amazed the way they fight again
And leave me to cry again and again for me
As for them who wonder why for them I cry

It pains that they fail to see how much I ache
In tears that dry my pain to the shock they lay
As my heart seeks in vain for peace to reign
For me to have a chance to live in joy again

Here I am, again, budding, teary and hopeful
That I see a brighter day and am happy again
Maybe my fate leads me on to where it rains
Or to where the showers are filled with pain

To thrive is the chance for me to all I pray
Not throw at me acid rain to win the game
What they pay to play with me again in play
Left to wither away in fields of blood and pain

Even in school it’s all the same over again
To be captive again but please stop the game
Home not a backyard tent or dungeon is where
My tired soul I pray even so belongs to wait

My hope fails to fade and peace eases my pain
In turmoil still my soul wrenches it away again
The pain in they that sire but choose to run away
Worse than they can ever know in me is shame

The choice it appears that always eludes me
They flaunt at me with seeming pride again
To hide again the head that debases their souls
To fail to see the light of joy mine shines again

Let me rejoice in the flame of the wisdom I seek
Give me a room to lay my passion in time
To play a new game that reveres not revile
The gift of life you so much ignore not savour

In the hope that in time you will see again
What I see and you too like but grow to rent
In lieu of a promise you chase, again but fail
To see the shadow that brings you so much pain

To work suits my dream to want to live again
But not at six when it is to start my way to it
An endless journey in the wilderness of hope
That my soul trains for in a house of shame

Worse still to drive my labour in your trouble
In the mishap you paint my face that pains
To work in shame for you to gain in vain
Not to know what damage you do to me again

When I shall be free again, in my world anew
My thoughts venture afield to know which if
Somewhere my truth lays, it really should now
Prays my soul it reveals its kindness to me

For how long I should be forever their prey
How much more to take of the pain in me
Of the love they fail to see my soul to give
Lest to shatter my faith in hope someday

Even then not to give in to the looming gloom
My soul frail but wants to surely again prevail
To wish even they that torments it well again
As it does always to ease their tortured souls

The help we need we must always seek within
Just as we do without as indeed we know not all
To free us from joy we feel in the pain we dwell
Just to protect our foes we say from our other foes

Even that we want to prove we are tough is vain
What we receive subject to scrutiny and not shame
So we abhor custody by ours for the angst we bear
For causes we stand to gain nothing but pain again

So my pain is yours in time to lose the love in me
As you fail to see it and not that I no longer give
Something inherent in me to do as yours to gain
Bringing me here in the so much mystery you bear

It is not too late to change and brace your faith
In letting me be when given you hold the sway
I pray will always remain my bond to love again
In you always my faith is strong for change to gain

To be happy again as we dream to be is noble
As is it to love one another again and always
The joy of life is to cherish as one, to inspire in all
To see us as a gift, not a pawn in the game of life