Muse: Windy Evenings and Lullaby

It has been extremely windy here in Albuquerque for the past few days. The winds remind me of the harmattan winds that blow in Nigeria during the yuletide, although Albuquerque’s winds are more consistent and tend to increase in intensity. These winds carry small rocks and fine sand as they gust by. You must dress like someone going to the moon to evade the dusty disaster.

The poetale is not about the winds of New Mexico; instead, I aim to paint the windy storytelling experience in Nigeria. Enjoy!

Muse: Windy Evenings and Lullaby

Intro:

Mild breezes welcome the evening
As clouds sail and birds fly away
No one is happier than hamlet children
For them, it was a time to travel,
To travel through stories, to see places
And time to put the day’s burden off.

***

Pile of tree leaves or small logs could be seats
Children go about, searching for nice spots
To sit…
On their way, they carry handfuls of leaves
Some gather more than they need,
Others for their friends or siblings
The evening shows signs of a coming rain
But the children know the evening’s tricks
When finally evening comes around,
The old storyteller with her walking stick
Had everyone sitting down,
A creaky stool—the only sound about
When the old storyteller tries to sit.

***

With a warm smile, she welcomed all
Then she broke into a familiar song
And the children sang happily with her
This was their moment before the tales began
Half of them may sleep on their sibling’s laps
Dreaming away of those places granny told of,
—lands far away, where grainfields prosper,
Places where grapes are coated in sugar,
Of lands where beautiful flowers bloom,
With the sun illustrating shadows on them
So that those shadows look like scarecrows
Now, kids also dream of chocolates, candies,
Of everything that can set their senses happy
They dream of places where girls laugh when they dance in farm barns
And the boys drop from treetops under the watchful eyes of the moon.

Outro:

But then, each evening of stories
Develops each child’s fantasy
and begins with a sweet lullaby.