'Ke (Care)

 

Akanke,

Tell me if I lie when I say that the sun rises and sets with your beauty,

Tell me if it is untrue that upon your Innocence and womanliness does the moon set out to shine beautifully across the night sky.

Aderonke,

You know I don't tell a lie when I say that I want you.

It is without Shame that I go to bed at night imagining you lying on my bosom

Your head cradled softly in the crook of my arms

I wouldn't whine or shout for pain even if my arm was hurting

Because you mean to me more than a lost arm and perhaps a fractured bone.

Abike,

They ask why I don't stop singing your praises,

Why of all the maidens in the land, your name is what I sing from sunset to sunrise.

Am I to tell them of your sweet voice that I love to listen to as you fetch water by the stream?

Or of your tiny beaded waist that calls and entrap me as you walk past my house to meet Ajio, the cocoa merchant?

Or of your ample bosom that I want rest my head upon till the end of my life?

Or of how you break my neck (Dami lorun) with your beautiful face that shines like that of Osun the wife of Sango?

Asake,

Wo! Even though they claim men become corpses when they come for you,

Their souls being snatched away by spirits unknown,

I don't care to be an addition to the list, 

As all I want is to be loved by you.

Ajoke,

I want you to bear my last name, Ifatoba.

I want us to build a home together.

I want us to have kids that look like you and also like me.

Anike, 

Would you grant me this thing I inquire of you,

Or do you want to remain in your father's house by the next ten market days!!!