- For ILÉPÉ TÌMÍLẸ́YÌN; a Sun by Dada Ibukunoluwa
The beauty of the sunset lies not
in the darkness which gradually overwhelms it,
But the hope; the light in our hearts
That we will see its shine tomorrow
What happens, then, when we watch a bright sun
sink into the horizon
and we know
We won’t see its shine tomorrow
or the next day
or the next…
The darkness of hopelessness
gradually overwhelms the lights in our hearts,
and we fear to find the sunset beautiful
- We truly cannot understand
Death comes without a notice
Living us all in utter despair
Does it not understand life?
Why does it choose to take ours at the most unimaginable times?
We find solace that you’re still with us
We find solace that you watch from on high
We’ll keep the scrolls untainted with lies
And do our bit to what you gave yourself to
Telling the truth
Agropress UI
- THE GOOD MAN: AN ELEGY
By Kareem Shamusudeen
ILEPE,
There were no signs,
nothing,
that you were going on that dreadful voyage.
What we behold was vison,
Lucid vision that you were a blessing for us.
OLUWATIMILEYIN,
you impressed us with your verbal pyrotechnics.
With your intellectual display, your mellifluous entertainment,
you taught us the ‘common’ in another light,
you taught us what it is to be a friend, a brother, a confidante.
VICTOR,
It is you who showed us how it is to cling to success,
It is you who told us what it is to be outstanding.
And what I thought would be an everlasting friendship,
is interrupted by the sad news of your demise.
The Law,
How do I bring myself to bear your painful exit?
How do I?
You have touched the heart of many.
Your diligence has catalyzed the lives of many.
Your name is one that will never perish.
For forever will you live in our hearts.
And when we write the little tributes we can,
they point—explicitly—that you had a good name.
And a good name is, of course, worthier than a century of scandals..
Rest on, my dear friend!
- A Farewell Too Soon by Precious Oparanozie
I wish there were always reasons
For our “why’s”
So that we could scream our “WHYS”
And wait in beautiful expectation for answers…
But when there are none
We realize, for once, how helpless we are;
That we are but dust
And nothing makes sense –
Not on this wretched dwelling place of ours anyways!
Why live, when cold hands could snatch it, and your dreams together with it?
Why love, when only Time knows
when the objects of your love would say the final good bye
And icy coldness fill that emptied place?
Timi, since I heard of your ultimate passing,
There has been a raging battle in me:
To fight these weak thoughts
And face it with the strength I ought to face it with
Because of course, you are in Christ
And even your going is great gain!
Still, are not the strongest of us permitted moments of weakness
When we can lament for a moment
Like those who have no hope?
Because Timi, it does not seem fair that life should go on normally
As if nothing happened!
Why didn’t the earth shake?
Why didn’t the sky fall?
Why didn’t darkness come sooner?
Why?
Yet the hope that there is a Good God
Keeps me from total despair,
As I know that even now, He’s in control
Even now, He has the victory
Even now, you’re intensely loved by Him
And even now, you’re safe in His arms.
Now I know why the aged are glad to be gone
For I would be glad to see you soon.
Farewell Timi!
- He is still alive By Oladeji Popoola
(For a Mellanbite, Ilepe Timilehin)
Eternal abode
One day will be everyone’s fortune.
As the hands of ones’ biological clocks tick
We plan, pray, hustle, and hope.
But the sweetest reality of existence soon manifests
when death comes calling when life seems to be sweet.
Eyes had seen a promising man
who gathered setts and then toiled with sweat and strain to lay seeds
in the earth but in the days of longing for harvest,
he was laid in the earth.
Ears had heard of a famous madman who still wanders on the streets
in the day and at night with bizzare dreads ladened with lice and filthy tatter.
Hopelessly and unknowningly, he heads to his grievous grave.
Weep not!
Ilepe Timilehin had come and had returned home to rest
And to live on in the eternal abode that we shall merit one day.
So who is still wailing when songs are being composed
in his honour by the angels for his great feats on earth.
Weep not!
He is still alive, in our hearts.
