Sex and Supplications in Owolabi Awwal Olanrewaju’s “Juju, Guns and Roses”
Supplication, as we know, is making a humble entreaty while sex is another form of seeking (ofttimes happy ending). And poets have always found semblance between sex and supplication. Maybe because of the heightened tension that accompanies both. Or the solemness of man in the power of their frenzies. Or because speaking in tongue seems like finding meanings in moans.
Awwal journeys readers into the realm of seeking. Man has been known to be intensely focused on both with raised expectation or unbridled excitement of seeking answers to their primal yearnings. Is it sex? Is it supplication? It depends how you unfurl the message in this chapbook.
In “The Night an Angel Said “Hello””, he reveals readers to the manifest of love as a means of saving every soul from “a chasm of things unbearable” down to a path where each can meet his angel. Each line of this poem is introduced by each line of the first Surah of Holy Quran. What a better way to open a page of love if not with an opening chapter of supplication. The poem ends with “Amin” and a cough (love comes with its own hiccups).
The second poem is of a night full of lover’s thought which dawns into a call for Salah. To remind lovers that between exciting exchanges, there is need for supplication. In “Blue Pill”, lovers that crave togetherness and foreverness should supplicate: “thunder struck into a crossroad but / this boy & girl blindfolded their emotions to aim/ darts at the stars, that it may / glitter their path to forever. “.
Here, you will also find a sermon that every player on the field of love should see distance as a barrier to the burning love. And where there is no adequate seeking, a warning card becomes a red card. The message is well-spelt in touching lines “Distance is a tumour in the heart of lovers; /A wild wind wavering the flame of love to oblivion /Affection falters like an old lamp /Silent treatment sending sour/ Signals;/A ship headed towards ruins…” Yellow Card page 12
For sinners looking for salvation. Therein a poem “Hoely Pilgrimage” it explicates a way a sinner knocks on heaven’s gate & the angels answer. What better way if not as detailed by this poignant stanza: “Her body — my religion/Why would I worship from a distance? /Her thighs — the sanctuary of living spring/Why would I refuse to take a sip?”
And for those who might still be in doubt how supplication and sex complement, complete each other. The poet asks in “Doggy”: how do you / fight a lust battle / in the city of / red seas and scenes,/
if not to bend / your knees in / supplication and / wait till the / rod of blessings strike / you from behind;/ little by little till/ it gets intense / & joy overflows? /
No answer could suit properly. But this punster has subtly crafted puns to establish the sync between sex and supplication. Words like “ horn-gry” “hoe-ly” “lust in thoughts” aptly configure readers for the grammatical dexterity journey ahead in between finding juju or roses, or at worse picking up a gun after heartbreak.
-Babatunde Waliyullah Adesokan (Toonday)
Babatunde writes from Oyo State, Nigeria. He works with Firstbank. He is a lover of poetry; a lover of everything that breathes poetry.
His works appeared / forthcoming in Pangolin Review, Wales Haiku, Ethel-Zine, Shallowtales Review, Stillwater Review, RoadRunnerReview, Lucent Dreaming, UnconCourier, HoneyMagReview, the StripesLiteraryMag, OBBLT, EthelZine, EbediReview, theQuills etc.
Twitter:@tunde_adesokan
Instagram: @toondayatkins
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