Oritsegbemi Emmanuel Jakpa
Kola Rainbow
 

Spokes of sunrays prickling
on the sky floor as a child paddles a patoon
down the river of Ethiope.
                                                    
River frogs reel forest hip-hops
gently over the clear silence.
Under the mango, leaves weave a dance.
 
On the hill cresting from Jesse,  
green usurps, a painter is sketching a woman
tanned-with-despair.
 
Two women trek along Aja road,
with calabash on their heads.
They are talking among themselves,
 
half-laughing, half-listening,
talking all the time down the road.