Published May 15th, 2025
Nigeria Poetry Contest #1 – First Place
by Sheriff Olanrewaju
With what attribute do I describe them? hideous yet precious pets, fishy-wishy of some sort.
while growing up near the Lagos lagoon, we as children never knew they could be taken as pets,
or even grilled to give great taste like roasted goats garnished in the land of the Mongols,
we scorned and looked away, craving crabs with peers finding tropical tilapias, while those gobies basked on the bank of the river,
frolicking with boldness, cryptically pouncing on ants and spiders
like the deadly Gimba monsters, yet we ignored, and stepped on their soft burrows – diggable
with our bare hands without the need to deploy the art of hooks and baits, yet away, we looked.
even canoeists wouldn't touch them with their long paddles, and whoever dared to hunt Gọlugọ
would earn for himself the most unfortunate name tags, portraying him as a nerveless nitwit.
to be called a nincompoop wasn't as worrisome as the superstitious cleansing rites for the one
believed to have stooped – a ritual slap from each of the boys in the fishing group, a single tear
mustn't be shed. and soon after the exercise would they all clap for the one who submitted
impassively to their redemptive slaps – with complimentary taps on the shoulder from the elders,
and a bottle of schnapps to the sawmill shrine by the fellow's father, like no one had goofed,
and we all would laugh and feign to be fine.
and yet I remain astonished – how everyone had ignored Gọlugọ based on fables from
uninformed forebears, propagated by those millers who used to pull logs of wood in and out of
Ọsa river. I remember how we cried for being served fishless foods and how our mothers emboldened
us to be focused while fishing the following days, when hundreds of unfazed mudskippers were left
to play on both dry and muddy clays.
About the Poet
Sheriff Olanrewaju resides in Ilorin, Kwara State, Nigeria.
Read the poet's biography on Sheriff Olanrewaju's Artist Page.
This poem is also featured in Wax Poetry and Art Magazine #7,
published in the Wax Poetry and Art Library.
Previously published in Nigeria Poetry Magazine:
The NEPA Marketer
by Joseph C. Ogbonna
Nigeria Poetry Magazine is part of the Wax Poetry and Art Network.
- Visit the main Wax Poetry and Art Submissions Page to see all opportunities.
- Visit the Wax Poetry and Art Library.
- This website and all contents ©Kirk Ramdath and specified artists.
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