On The Prison Walls Poem by Adeosun Olamide

It began after the birth
Her delusions were stark
She called neighbor fays
And dark was hell to her.
When our baby slept
She'd cry endlessly
I'd calmed her,
Woke sleeping child
And she'd call Christ.
For a while she recovered
I could leave baby in bosom
And crave vital needs
But less than while was.
She claimed ghost in house
One with residence in the T.V
Was tape our marriage
And just dead- mum was there
She would have it not in house
No words could change stance
The T.V set then was given out
And for a while she well seemed
Until she smashed the mirror
And insisted her reflect was real
That it smiled when she didn’t
That night, she stopped sleeping
And frequently will check baby
And cry he is dying, eyes dimming
None could sleep-
Day that came
I sought far Sanatorium
To require rescue
When home came
I met her by gate
She shivered thorough
He died- she said
Hurried in to salvage
But there in cradle
Our weeping child
After much certitude
She came in-
But won’t touch baby
She thinks child a ghost
I calmed her now
And settled in brain
Her sickness-
Our journey ahead
She wanted away
That her world is mad
But claim love, she rejected
Too soon, there were evocations
Her father heard whisphers
And came a visit
The missing T.V startled him
And he noted daughter not sick
That I merely want away
So might lust another
He cursed me from the act
And esteemed eyes on me.
That broke the sanatorium spinal
And for my love
She writes on in her dairy
Of a ghost town she lives
With each nights passed
Her isolation thrived.
One of those nights,
She came around
Withdrew from her chambers
And acquaint cradle
She took the sleeping baby
And buried him
By dawn, a missing baby
Together, we reported a stolen baby
But in her mien
I saw no mothers’ pain
Only a fear of right
The day after
-I woke to hear
She ran into the tides
And the water swept her from
By dawn her father knew
Had me in cuffs
Charged, murder of daughter
And hostage his grandchild
The next sunrise
I will be in the gallows