THINKING OF IYI ODA

Poem by Nduka Otiono

Where is the road that leads to Iyi Oda

Village stream that watered my being

Where is the water that clings to your feet

A child in need of loving Kindness?

I shall return to you Iyi Oda, peaceful brook

Where every morning was a conference

Of boys and girls lost in their innocence

Unmindful of their birthday suits.

I shall return to you, water maid,

To read my book of life to your silent rhythm

Unbroken by years of desertion.

I think of you in an alien land,

Recalling every dive with mists

Spreading like halos above my head.

I think of you, Iyi Oda….

How I wondered how you came

Through thickets smelling like damp armpits.

There were times you played wind songs,

Rustling like a kettle hissing with boiling water

And sowing desire in my loins.

Then I longed to sink into your watery bosom

And blossom from your fetishes of love.

Iyi  Oda, I wish you could stretch your warm arms to me here.

Curl around me, lost in a shrinking and sinking planet in peril,

Where each day the sun bakes a climate of fear

And Lumberjacks shun the sweet scents of the forest.

Where is the road that leads to Iyi Oda,

Where the fishes are shy, flashing like my eyelids

And swimming in a hide-and-seek style?

Village stream that watered my childhood,

I will return to you for my final cleansing.

Taken From: Water Testaments: Anthology of poems on water and water-related issues.

Edited by Greg Mbajiorgu.  (2008) ISBN 978-049-921-0

Photo: A man transports water cans on his bicycle in Soy, Kenya