Poem

Warm Reception

The heat hits me as I stepped off the bus.
Air stifling and polluted, it took me a while to breath.
The cacophony of vehicular horns blaring;
Bus conductors of various routes yelling.

I find a bus to take me home:
The bus so ancient- I fear for my clothes
“150 naira ni owo moto…” the bus tout yells
“…ati 300 naira fun ero e.”

With a shudder, the bus starts.
although not before it had been pushed a bit.
The vehicle sounding like a tuberculosis patient
And with every stop, quacking like a leaf in harmattan.
The constant rattling it makes as we move,
takes me only a while to get used to.

Every road we pass, traffic is chaotic
with vehicles crawling at snail speed
and vehicles moving bumper to bumper for miles on end.

I look around-
At the lovely buildings as well as the not so impressive;
The hawkers, vendors and chalartants;
The commercial buses as well as cyclists cutting corners
To get to their destinations
And I say to myself,
“welcome home to Lagos”

Chidiebere Allen Ugwu
Lagos, Nigeria

I'm a Nigerian by birth from the eastern part of the country. I grew up in Lagos State- its in the western part of Nigeria. I love to sing, read novels and try my hand at writing. I'm the first of four children and the only son.

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