I wear Gucci and Zannotti
\nBought from lands far and exotic
\nA million Naira worth of weave-on
\nWith heels that can pay the bills
\nI wear my outdoor designer outfits
\nThough my heart is filled with pits
\nI wish someone would say \u201cI love you\u201d
\nAnd for once, actually mean it
\nI wear my spinsterhood like a well cut jacket
\nPaste on it designer labels
\nLike Gucci Still Single and Prada Sadness
\nThe fragrances that fill my empty womb
\nI wear the lonely reality of the independent and strong black woman
\nI do not know how to manipulate or scheme
\nSo I sew on the pretence of a warrior
\nAnd fix on my head a Brazilian weave
\nWhat do you wear?<\/p>\n
I wear a foreign accent and own a foreign certified degree
\nStill at night I go to bed without electricity
\nI wear the morning like a burden on these Lagos streets
\nRepeat my daily politeness, but damn! I can\u2019t stand the heat
\nI wish I could go back home you know, abroad where everything is nice and neat
\nThe money is here however, this is the land of opportunity
\nIt baffles me how I have no strength to just get up and leave
\nYou see my Father has absolute control over me, though I am already 36
\nBut I wake up daily and hit the floor running!
\nI swear in pidgin English and curse in Yoruba when power goes out
\nAs soon as I step out of my bedroom door I am again the Queen
\nI wear my foreign accent and flaunt my foreign certified degree
\nPretend that I am independent and that nothing has a hold over me
\nWhat do you wear?<\/p>\n
I wear the panic of a broke chic men!
\nLiving my life off different men
\nAt night my sleep is bothered by hailstones and fires
\nThe insults and prayers cast by the wives of some of these my men
\nI sort them out at that place where three roads meet at night,
\nMen, I will not go out without a fight
\nMy shoes are made by survival; I step into them without regret
\nI wear my reality with pride my Sister!
\nI can take all your men from you without breaking a sweat
\nThere is an upper class seat waiting
\nAnd someone has to pay for it
\nThis body won\u2019t keep firm forever
\nIt needs to cash out those cheques
\nWhat do you wear?<\/p>\n
I wear the opportunities of my social circle
\nI shop at Harrods and Selfridges alone
\nNot because of any money I have earned myself
\nBut because of all of these people that I know
\nYou see in this world, its pedigree that matters
\nI am not even aware that power gets withheld
\nI have never known the price of diesel
\nThough I know what it means to be alone
\nBoarding houses all my life and an arranged marriage in tow
\nStill, I have come to love this man
\nAlthough he is hardly at home
\nBut this is the marriage my Mother had
\nAnd one I have come to know
\nI wear upper class and super exposure
\nThis is the life I live
\nI will have it no other way
\nWhat\u2026 do you wear?<\/p>\n
I wear the marriage of opportunity
\nI am the one with that diamond ring
\nI don\u2019t care for him and he doesn\u2019t love me,
\nStill I am friends with all of his family
\nHe is sleeping with one of my friends\u2019
\nIts alright though I have slept with her husband
\nMy mind is steady and focused
\ninfidelity cannot stand in my way
\nWe all know what we are here for
\nI\u2018ve given my children his name
\nWhen him and his father are dead
\nTheir legacy and riches will be ours to gain
\nI saw my Mother suffer shame and penury
\nAs the fourth wife of six;
\nSo from school I carefully chose \u201cfriends\u201d with whom I would mix
\nSee, I lied and cheated my way up here
\nAnd I am not about to lose it!
\nI wear the schemes of a street wise woman
\nMy Mother taught me well.
\nWhat do you wear?<\/p>\n
I wear a diet,
\nAnd fashion trends and gossip.
\nI am concerned with not knowing
\nKnowledge is power and the tabloids are there to supply a wealth of information
\nI wear the knowledge of everyone\u2019s names at parties,
\nI know where they work, what they earn and who they recently slept with
\nI go to bed content; I have done my daily bit
\nIt doesn\u2019t matter that regarding my own life and destiny, I do not know s@it!
\nMeanwhile\u2026What do you wear?<\/p>\n
I wear the burden of one that used to believe
\nI no longer trust myself
\nThere was once I would have fought for righteousness
\nBut what\u2019s that about? I\u2019m now a complete mess!
\nEach one I see fights for nothing substantial
\nOnly shoes and big named weave-on
\nThey clamor for fame and cheap fortune
\nAnd those sickening travel bags by Louis Vuitton
\nI see them arrive at the airports in high heels and perfume even though that place stinks!
\nSee, I tried to balance faith and reality
\nAnd came up with a weird mix
\nI spoke logic at posh dinner parties
\nAnd listened patiently to atheists
\nI even slept with this one guy, but, what a waste of sin!
\nHe had no bedroom skills, and he never once proposed to me!!!<\/p>\n
Now I am sick from double dealing between faith and worldiness
\nI\u2019m struggling to find my way back home
\nFighting to rise again through all of this mess
\nI\u2019m tired, in this fight for faith, of being all alone
\nBeing the only one to truly believe
\nThat, men can be faithful and women submissive
\nThat, prayers don\u2019t need the addition of juju to make them effective
\nThat, teenage children do not need expensive mobile phones
\nThat, there\u2019s nothing wrong with abstinence
\nThere are more virgins world over than a paltry number, 6
\nThat, we are not all \u201cthose born again Christians!\u201d
\nYou know, the ones who sleep around and in Church \u201cbless\u201d
\nThat, they are not all terrorists who bow to pray
\nAnd rise to follow the faith of the Prophet Mohamed!
\nI\u2019m sick and tired of trying to be real
\nWhen my friends panic when they are not seen flying upper class
\nI\u2019m sick of girls emptying their savings to buy just one big-named bag
\nThen turn around and ask me \u201cplease can you pay for my meal at Mama Cass?!\u201d.
\nI wear the burden of the tired and worn out believer of my faith<\/p>\n
What do you wear?
\nI am doctor, I am lawyer
\nI am musician, I am student
\nI am educated; albeit only in my own mind
\nI am a sponsor, I am defendant
\nI am proper, I am a runs girl
\nI am married, I am single
\nI am fulfilled, I am discontent
\nI am a villager; I have just come to Lagos
\nI am a student; I am dating a politician
\nI am faithful, I am promiscuous
\nI am a candidate, I am a principal
\nI am a believer, I am atheist
\nI am prosecutor, I am judge<\/p>\n
I wear this life daily
\nAnd the things I do that define me
\nI wear my good and bad decisions
\nand the path on which they have led me
\nI wear all that I have become
\nAnd sometimes not everything that I should be
\nI wear the burden of being
\nI wear the burden of living
\nI wear that WOMAN.
\nWhat do YOU wear?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
What do You Wear?<\/b>
\n I wear Gucci and Zannotti Bought from lands far and exotic A million Naira worth of weave-on With heels that can pay the bills I wear my outdoor designer outfits Though my heart is filled with pits I wish someone would say \u201cI love you\u201d And for once, actually mean it I wear my spinsterhood <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":753,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-video","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-spokenword","post_format-post-format-video"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue20\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue20\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue20\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue20\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue20\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue20\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":686,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue20\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139\/revisions\/686"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue20\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue20\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue20\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtls.ca\/issue20\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}