I’m sure they don’t know I still think about you.
Your parents and family must be sure I can’t even remember your name.
Omolola Olatunbosun. How can I possibly forget?
It’s still as fresh as rain on my mind, the first day we shared a seat at school…
The names we invented for the teachers we didn’t like and the ones we adored…
The days we knelt out in the sun together for pranks for which we were guilty or innocent…
How could I possibly forget?
Your strident voice as you painted a picture in our minds of events that took place over the holidays, making us wish we could have swapped families for the holidays…
Master story teller you were, your bright eyes twinkling at some hidden joke…
So full of life, so in love with living…
Your fragile frame darting arround at the speed of light...
Always right in the middle of the latest prank…
Almost as if you knew the length of the thread you had been given…
Almost as though you wanted to cheat time,
Wanted to put as much as you could into the basket you came with…
I remember you Omolola…
Your parents and family must be sure I can’t even remember your name.
Omolola Olatunbosun. How can I possibly forget?
It’s still as fresh as rain on my mind, the first day we shared a seat at school…
The names we invented for the teachers we didn’t like and the ones we adored…
The days we knelt out in the sun together for pranks for which we were guilty or innocent…
How could I possibly forget?
Your strident voice as you painted a picture in our minds of events that took place over the holidays, making us wish we could have swapped families for the holidays…
Master story teller you were, your bright eyes twinkling at some hidden joke…
So full of life, so in love with living…
Your fragile frame darting arround at the speed of light...
Always right in the middle of the latest prank…
Almost as if you knew the length of the thread you had been given…
Almost as though you wanted to cheat time,
Wanted to put as much as you could into the basket you came with…
I remember you Omolola…
The days you came to school in swathes of wool shivering in the sweltering heat.
The cold rattling your bones so hard we could hear the rattle of the chains that held you bound to your genes…
The days you didn't come to school…
The day we learnt that you had made the last trip you’d ever make to class…
The vacant, faraway look in our eyes as we stared away into the void to which you had disappeared…
We heard your tinkling laugh again, and recalled as many memories as we could, desperate to store them away safe in the vault of our minds…
For we knew it was all we would be allowed, and it would have to be enough…
Your genes lost, Omolola, we haven’t seen you in fifteen years,
Your genes removed you from our presence
But we have planted you in the genesis of our heart…
And you live still…you are alive and healthy in our hearts…
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