MY FATHER'S BROTHER HAS TAKEN A WIFE: A POEM.

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My father's brother has taken a wife;
Esosa, she's pretty as the morning.
Her skin is the sweet taste of milk
On the nipple of a baby's tongue.
Her hair is a thick virgin forest,
Untapped, thick, black with the sheen
Of coconut oil between each weave.
Her lips are the sweetness of black blood
Flowing in the rivers of Igodomigodo
And Ogiso has blessed her
With the scarification of her peoples.
Indeed my father's brother has taken a wife.

Esosa, her name rings in the compound,
Behind the barn, on top the mat,
Beneath the full moon spilling
On the wings of bats hunting the night.
Her name throbs beneath the waist;
A scent, a moistness, a heat,
My father's brother can never get
Enough of the sweet taste.
With the thud of pestle turning yam,
In the mortar, a name sings; God's gift.

My father's brother has taken a wife,
Her breast hangs heavy and ripe,
Her mooncapped nipples tremble
With the cold of the harmattan.
Her hips undulates with
The beaded gifts of my father's people
And her buttocks wriggle and wobble
With the sighs of hungry lips.
My father's brother, he has taken a wife.

Esosa! Esosa! Erhanagbon
You called him but your lips
Were wet with the kisses of betrayal.
Nonýaenmwen n'ehi mwen, you said
To him but your hips were splayed
Behind the barn, under the big tree.
Ha! Esosa! What sort of gift are you?
Uvbi, my father's brother dies.
He lies sick with the curses of your hips.
He lies broken with the stink of your sin
Corrupting every air, he breathes.
Esosa! Iyeogie! The brilliant moon,
You have brought a lion to his knees.
Ha! My father's brother has taken a wife.

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NEW WORDS

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Esosa /eseusa/: A popular name among the bini speaking people of Edo State, Nigeria. It means God's gift.

Igiodomigiodo: The name the Benin empire bore before Oba Ewuare the great changed it to Edo as a means of deifying his servant who had saved him from a terrible ailment. The name is said to be derived from the first Ogiso whose name was Igodo

Ogiso: These were the First Kings of the Benin kingdom. Their reign and time is lost in the myths of the Benin people.

Erhanagbon: lover/affianced(male)/boyfriend

Nonýaenmwen n'ehi mwen: My sweetheart

Uvbi/uvwi/: Pretty young lady

Iyeogie: great woman

source

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The poem takes a look at the taboo of a married woman cheating on her husband. In some Nigerian cultures, if a married woman should have an affair with another man, a curse falls on the husband, who falls sick and dies.

This is quite commonly believed as many a widow has been blamed for her husband's death as a result of her proclivity for being with men outside her matrimony. It therefore places a delinma for men who are married to promiscuous women, yes?

Though not reflected in the poem, I came to wonder why such a curse is not also placed on women whose husbands are philanderers. If men can die for the sins of their wives, why can't a woman also? Just a thought.

But then again, who truly suffers? The husband who is dead or the wife who has to live with the stigma of being the indirect cause of her husband's death. There's no hiding an affair in such a case. Once the affair is consummated, the husband sickens and dies. What a way to catch a cheating wife but how do we catch a cheating husband then?

Now it is said that if a man should eat the food of his wife who is cheating on him or have sex with her, the curse is activated. Believing in the reality of this curse is not my concern, my concern is the peculiarity of the punishment for cheating. What are your thoughts?