Tribute To A Goat Poem by Joseph Oladehinde Ibikunle

Cool was the Saturday morning,
The sky was bright and faintly sunning.
I, busy with my bachelor chores;
Drawing water and some plates to wash.
But came this goat in black and white furs
And with his salivous tongue licked my dish.

'Kai! ' For a stone reached my right hand
And released it on the stubborn animal.
He'd already dashed, escaped and felt no pang.
I left and returned feeling more abysmal,
For this mischievous billy had come again
And I was furious from toes to brain.

Once more, I reached for a bigger pebble
And bulletted it against his skull.
I aimed him well though he was nimble.
And painfully, amidst plantain trunks he did fall.
I couldn't withstand his throes and moribund cry;
I regretted, for I doubt it will not die.

Instantly remembered I while regretting
My childhood years before I was ten
When Mother warned me against stoning.
I had almost maimed a friend then
With a pebble for calling me names.
Since then but today, I have refrained from using stones.

'Goat, yours and mine is the right to live
Which I couldn't have intentionally denied you.
My heart prays for you to revive.'
This was all I could aver in my remorseful hue.