Beauty's Badluck

Of all good professions, Beauty had none

Of all bad professions, Beauty chose prostitution

Of all rich customers, Beauty got no man

Her luck chose a lowlife white American

Mark was a banker who lost his job

Because of notorious life with girls from club

All the girls disappeared

Only Beauty took him in, Mark in bed

Beauty’s colleagues drove great cars

Travel abroad, look fresh, and walk with class

They live in highbrow Lagos area

But Beauty, thin as twig, lived in our dirty area

Mark’s idleness would infuriate her

He would calm her but she would chatter

Then he would roll her marijuana to smoke

Clouded in smoke and incense with sex stoke

Gossipy neighbours commended Mark’s love

Typical of other whites as if made from above

Always kissing, holding, loving, kissing everywhere

Unlike our people who beat women here and there

Beauty struggled to take care of Mark

Even when typhoid fever made him stark

She gave him herbs and boiled root

She had no hospital fee and none gave a hoot

One day she saw Mark with a girl

They were talking about his novel

She pounced on the girl and stripped her

Then sent Mark and his things away from her

People thought Mark would come back

This time, they were taken aback

Mark was all over the news, he didn’t show up

Alas! His glory did blow up

He had gone to Abe-Igi, a popular hangout

To see old bank friends for hand-out

But actors there told him of role in a movie

Oh the place where fortune smiled: Abe-Igi

Beauty’s bad luck had struck

She was not with him when he hit good luck

Her chasing him out pushed him into good luck

Neighbours ignored Beauty saying she has bad luck

Beauty cursed the them for her misfortune

Beauty told them Mark will bring her the fortune

Beauty waited long then left untraceably our terrain

But Mark came back; oh Beauty’s bad luck again.

Excerpt from ‘Our First American’, a novel by E.C. Osondu adapted into a poem by Tembo Nani