Salutation

Demi Raji

I come gently 
Like the evening rain 

I come in silence 
Like the dews of a virgin morn 

I come suddenly 
Like thunder, like the rain at noon. 

Rites of first tuber and leaves to you

Oh forbears of redolent words 
Salute to you who ponder our ways to sunlight 
Salute to you who hold pestles of songs 
To the mouths of mortal wrongs. 

I salute the song I salute the singer 
I salute the patience of quick proverbs 
I salute the craft in immortal songs 
I salute the pebbles I salute the pearls... 

Give my voice the sonorous strains of bitter kolas 
Give my voice the slippery depths of colobus bananas 
Let my eyes curve into the past 
Like a sickle in the harvest of gladsome songs 
Let my blood draw the picture of things 
Gone, going and coming... 

I come tenderly 
like the full moon 
among gasping stars. 

I come gently like the evening rain.

Demi Raji

Remi Raji is a Nigerian poet, scholar, literary organiser and cultural activist. Raji’s first collection of poems – A Harvest of Laughters (1997) – has won national and international recognition.