When the rooster crows
And you hear the bicycle bells clinging
The revving of cars
And shoes of students squeak on the road
The endless buzz of conversation
The morning runs, the river flows, the forest sways
It’s dawn.
Along the highway are the clustered houses
The road more taken when the sun glows
And the sky; orange
The road less taken when the moon smiles
An old rusty tractor on the road
No one remembers how it got there
No one sees the tractor
It’s the road.
The river is a special part of us
Water lilies and green mosses cover the ripples
White egrets walk daintily
At nighttime the river is dark and still
Fireflies lit up the surface
The river flows through below an old bridge,
It’s the road.
The lone house sits quietly in the deep forest
The palm trees swaying
Bats hanging upside down on trees
Their cries mingle with the bustle of the noon
But pierce through the silence of the night
It’s home.
Darkness and silence seep in
She walked the deserted road back
A dimly lit lantern in hand
A tray of goods on her head
Two eyes stared at her
She’s never afraid until
She’s home.
the roses petal 
11 responses to “A Lonely Road Home”
Nice piece. I like how it flowed from describing the road and it’s interactions with people and nature then to our female traveler. It’s also ironic how she went through the journey on that sort of road without fear, and then gets home and becomes scared. It says quite a lot about many who are scared of home.
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It’s amazing how You made me understand this more ✌🏻
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Really nice piece, but couldn’t place the last two sentences, it seems to be bi-variant. “Is it that she’s not afraid until she gets home and the fear kicks in” or “she’s fearless throughout the journey and beyond”
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Have you ever walked a dark road or through a forest maybe
Then you’ll understand the fears that shake your mind when you get home
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I felt the peace and tranquility of the road as read, somewhere I longed to be away from the hustling and busyness of this city called Lagos.
Thank you so much.
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At times lonely roads are busy. Very busy. Could be the rowdiness from within or that that surrounds. They come with loads too – the physical and the spiritual. As Everlast puts it in his song:
I walk along the lonely road
My back is strong, girl
I’ll carry the load
All the grinding time I pay the debt that’s owed
I walk along the lonely road
I believe the inner strength and peace is what will keep us going. Always. Well done for another lovely piece, Adenike!👏
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Nice piece, most times our fear comes up when and after we are done with series of activities. Fear of the outcome or that which resides in the subconscious.
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This no doubt inspire deep thoughts and provoke the nasty realities of our contemporary civilization. One could view your writeup from another angle, as a satire of our socio-political conundrums where there is a humongous distrust, disconnect or lacuna between the government and the governed. The old cum abandoned tractor is reminiscence of all the white elephant projects that dot the entire landscape of the country with nobody queried, investigated nor jailed. The lonely road is a euphemism for the emptiness in the promises of the political class which among many other things have culminated into the unacceptable palpable travesty of justice especially of the common man which is directly fuelling this horrific insecurity in the land which has caused us the downward trajectory of our image which unfortunately creates a culture of fear at home.
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Thank you 🙏
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This is a great piece……
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Thank you 😊
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