Agbo ile
Now that home is gone,what's left?
A month to my father's retirement after working over three decades for the government, they ordered a caterpillar to pull to the ground the place I've called home for 13years.
Now that home is gone, what's left?.
A question I couldn't sleep with.
The government scattered my family like corns for a mallam's fowl. My dad was made to sleep on the chilled naked floor of a rayless classroom, and the church had no option but to accommodate my younger brother in a space occupied by electronics gadgets.
I have called this place home for 13 years; What I didn't understand was this home could be destroyed by a earth moving machine.
Life has made me see home for what it is!
Home is not that cluttered bedroom with our clothes scattered in all corners, and a white potty lying on the bare floor that reeks of urine on somedays.
It can't be Mama Kunle yelling at aunty Yemi to buy akara instead of yam or Iya Ebele dragging the bread seller’s daughter’s breast over who is supposed to fetch from the tap first, disturbing my delicate morning nap.
I can swell it isn't a parlor decorated with the blood of dead bugs and a fridge-repair shop choking the airflow to the room.
It's also not the incessant probing of the person at the other end of my call asking me if I'm on the road because my landlord decided to build a storey-building on the busy road of Mafoluku where an Okada man can see my naked butt from the street.
My mind couldn't fathom this reality( home) in the last decade because I had a heart of a child.
Home is trying to reach my mom's phone to hear her laughter again and sob at her confession. Titi, I've just resigned, and I'm moving to our new place. A proclamation that sent me into a bipolar tornado. She held her peace on the call but my heart wanted to wipe those tears and kiss mama it's okay not to be okay.
It is ensuring my kid sister is sleeping at night and not finding Statistics difficult.
It is also seeing that behind those 'I am okay' in my WhatsApp dm is a 60 years old school teacher feeling guilty about not having a retirement plan and that's fine.
It is definitely shielding my family from the injustice of the Nigerian economy[President Bola Ahmed Tinubu].
Now that home is gone, What left?
Lola ,Victor, mum and Dad is all that’s left now.
Home is not an architecturial building that can be pulled down by an earth moving machine.
It is an intimate investment on the people that matters.
What does home mean to you ?
Home for me is the respite i find after pursuing a thought through my brain, after I seize it and write it down. It is not the loud men children that claim to be family, it is not in thier faraway looks.
You write beautifully, like a poet, I enjoyed this read.❤️
It's really okay not to be okay. Days when it just keeps pouring, not knowing what to do next, but you still keep that ray of hope alive because you still have HOME, now that's priceless. I'm ALWAYS rooting for you Tee❤️. It will be okay in the end🙏