This Stench

By Hope Eghagha

THE stench oozes only around him
Inside him and from him
This stench from nature’s policeman

When conscience bites, no one
But the host/victim feels it

This foul stench from past odious misdeeds
From a million backstabbings
From scheming to outdo and undo friends and brothers
From cornering the commonwealth
From pouncing on spouses of hapless men
From cutting off life support to struggling men & women
From facades and pretences

Ola Rotimi says he’s a bat
Calling himself a bird

This stench

No one covers their nostrils
When they sit next to him

Yet the smell overwhelms him
Even when he takes to the pews
In pious supplication before heaven
Or when he dances in the secret shrines of Sango

It is his night time
After decades in service
And the last boat drifts near

That which makes him a man
Stands no more even in the stripped presence
Of voluptuous maidens

He wants to give up old ways
He wants to be a new creature
Yet that which grew him to the top
Refuses to slide away

The stench is overwhelming
How long should he wait?

[(c)hope eghagha/14.08.2024]

* Eghagha, a playwright, teaches at the University of Lagos