Tomorrow

Today, i couldn't reach my destination,
I had wandered away from the path;
I had been led astray by the glittering non-
essentials,
And now i'm stuck and clueless, in the gathering
night.
But tomorrow, with its promise of sunlight,
Holds an assurance of a journey completed.

Today, i failed to shine,
And lighten the world-
Giving the next man the inspiration to brighten his
own corner;
Today, i neglected the one thing that was essential-
love.
As i look back with dismay,
I realize with a heart full of gratitude:
I had one more gift-
Tomorrow- to make things right.

Today, i failed; tomorrow i'll succeed,
Today is marred by my actions,
Tomorrow is a fresh lump to be molded into
greatness;
Today, i wished i had not been born,
Tomorrow i'll be immortalized.
Tomorrow, a day of hope and better things awaits,
I'll rise and meet it with gladness;
For tomorrow i'll shine.

The Shadow of Death

He was going to die!

He knew it. His breath came in short gasps and he was feeling faint. His hands were going numb with a tingling sensation in them. He was losing control and time and space seemed to stand still- everything looked surreal. So, this is what dying feels like, he thought to himself. His heart was beating faster and he looked around for a
place to sit.

He began to have flashbacks of moments in his life. His mind went back to the day he met Jane, yes, the happiest day of his life. Even at the face of imminent death, a smile broke out on his face at the memory.

He had been wandering around in the
park that evening and looking for a distraction. He could remember thinking to himself when he saw her that he had seen just that, only it was not what he had in mind.

She was tall and slender; light complexioned with an oval face that was creased in a frown. Her head was bent over her phone and she looked worried.

She was dressed in a black tee shirt over sky blue denim trousers and a pair of loafers.

He would later find out that she had been reading a text message from her mother that her father's condition had taken a turn for the worse. At that instant, a sudden
desire to wipe that frown from her face and replace it with a smile overwhelmed him. He could imagine how radiant her face would be.

He saw her blink rapidly trying to fight off tears but not managing to hold off a tear drop from rolling down the corner of her eyes.

He did not know how he got to her side, but he found himself standing in front of her and
introducing himself. She looked confused like she didn't know how she got there and nodded absently at him. Without thinking, he held her gently by the arms and led her to a nearby bench where they sat in silence.

After a while she put her face in her hands and sobbed gently, her whole body racked
with spasms. He held her gently, till the sobbing subsided. When she finally lifted up her face, they were red and swollen but the look of anguish and confusion had left them. Her change in demeanor was noticeable as she realized that she was in the presence of a complete stranger. She apologized
and asked for his name again, and thanked him for being supportive.

That night he had walked her back to her house despite her persistent decline of his offer. All through the walk, his heart had been beating faster and he had been short of words but fortunately, she was not in the mood for talking. She was lost in
thought. At her doorstep, she thanked him again and gave him her number at his request.

The next day when he called her, she had sounded more cheerful and had invited him over for dinner to thank him for the previous day.

He had enjoyed her company thoroughly that night, and they talked for a long time into the night. She had told him about
her family and her father who was in the hospital and was diagnosed with chronic kidney disease. It took great effort to leave her house that day after spending three hours together.

Their relationship had not started on a rosy note, about a week later, her father had died and she was saddled with the responsibility of arranging the funeral and attending to the numerous guests who came to the house to pay their condolences. He had admired her strength and courage in those days
and he was very excited when she had allowed him to help.

Not once did she cry during those days,
not until the night of the funeral, when all the
guests had gone and she was alone with him. He was about to leave and she had hugged him and thanked him for being there. There in the hallway, she had broken down, unable to hold the tears any longer.

They had stood there, her face buried in his
chest as she wept uncontrollably, the sounds muffled by his shirt, and he holding her gently and rocking her.

At that moment, he had known where he wanted to be for the rest of his life; with her, to be a shoulder for her to lean on.

Now, there was a churning in his stomach and he was getting nauseous. How could he die now? He thought frantically; when Jane was due to give birth in two days. Life was unfair! Just when things were going fine and smooth and he was looking forward to fatherhood, he was going to have to leave it all behind.

Just then, he felt a hand touch him from behind and a voice saying

''here, take this and breathe into it''.

He took the brown envelope from the stranger feebly and breathed into it several times.

Slowly, he began to feel blood flow into his arms again and the churning in his stomach began to subside. He was feeling clear headed again, and his breathing became steady.

''there you go'' said the stranger in a chirper
voice,''you were just having a panic attack''.

WHAT DO MEN WANT?

A wife is more than a homemaker or a bedmate unlike the popular belief among ladies of nowadays. Most ladies think that what an average guy wants from them is somebody to cook his meals, do his laundry, clean his house and sleep with, so they offer these services hoping to convince their men that they are wife material. Thus they are bewildered when after all these they are still dumped. Then they become embittered.

Most feminist nowadays now tell their fellow womenfolk not to perform any ‘’wifely’’ duties for the guys that they are dating as that is the key reason why they remain unmarried. According to them, the guys see no reason to propose marriage to them because they are already enjoying all the benefits of marriage with them.

While these may be partially true, it is also misleading and reflects the ignorance of the womenfolk about what a guy really wants from them. A lady has been taught by her mother that to be a good wife, she must possess above average culinary skills to woo the man, ‘’ the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach’’ they dish out the ancient words. She must also be good homemaker. So she takes pains to learn all these and then tells herself that she is ready to be ‘Mrs. Right’ for the ‘Prince Charming’. But they couldn’t be more wrong.

The truth is we do not need a girlfriend to cook for us. A simple friendship with a lady could get that done. Personally, I know many bachelors who get their food cooked by their friends, many of who are married and who take pity on them and wouldn’t want to see them starving. We also do not need a girlfriend to do our laundry, there are those that wash people’s clothes for money, and there are washing machines too. And if we need our houses cleaned, we know people who offer these services too. So why then would we put ourselves through the hassles of a relationship and all sorts of stringent conditions and the expenditures just to get these things done, when we could get same for fewer amounts and definitely less emotional turmoil?

As for the sex part, there are lots of professionals that offer great, no strings attached, mind blowing sex, and who can be at our beck and call and who will be too happy to oblige our most perverse fantasies, many of which we cant share with our girlfriends. So the question is, why do we still have girlfriends? What do we want in that woman that we would like to spend the rest of our lives with? Why do we go through so many circles of women looking for just that one person?

What we want is somebody to share our dreams with, someone that will believe in us and cheer us on. It sounds simple but then not every lady we see can do that no matter how good a homemaker she is. We will not be satisfied living with somebody that will take care of our bodies and sate our appetites but cannot share our soul, dreams, passion and goals. We would not settle for less.

Sadly, most ladies are content with being a homemaker or they are too busy running after their career to bother with giving us what we really need. They want to dazzle us with their culinary skills and ambitions. Even if the ladies keep their legs closed and refuse to perform any ‘’wifely’’ duties like the feminists are advocating, we would still dump you if we discover that you cannot give us what we really need; that cerebral coitus, that union of hearts and mind that really makes us one.

No matter what you do, the ring would still elude you, once we cannot connect to you or sense that you do not share our dreams. If the only thing you focus on are your dreams, your desires and your fantasies, and you make everything all about you and your wants, then you have no place with us. It is only a matter of time; we will tire of you, no matter the sex appeal and the homeliness.

Take a moment to ponder on the way the ladies think. When asked about their dream man, here’s what majority will say: A tall, dark, and handsome man, God-fearing, caring, sensitive, a good father and the likes. Which of these relates to connectedness between her and him?

Why does she want God-fearing? So that he wouldn’t cheat on her and not so that he could be ready for heaven. He must be caring and sensitive because then he would be attuned to their needs and emotions and would always go to extreme lengths to fulfill them. What about his needs? Oh you know them already- sex and food! What about his dreams and aspirations, his passions and goals? He carries them all alone.

So, no, we do not need you, if all you have to offer is just that. Let’s just shag and go, and everyone are happy (pardon the language). We will give you all that you need but won’t bond ourselves to you. No, that will be a great mistake.

Now you know what we want. You know why we dump you even after several professions of love and even years of dating. We kept hoping we would find what we needed in you but we didn’t and we couldn’t deceive ourselves any longer. Don’t take it personal; you just weren’t the one. It is actually rare finding a virtuous woman despite the fact that 51% of the world’s population consists of females.

One thing we would advice is that rather than carry about bitterness and go about sharing the ‘’men are pig’’ gospel, take a hard look at your self. No one drops a diamond no matter how rough it looks, and forget that crap about we being ignorant of your value, believe me we know a diamond when we see one. And it isn’t in how sexy you look; the diamond is in the heart.

You want to be appreciated? Appreciate in your value. Understand what we want- not sex or food or homeliness, not that those are bad but they are bonuses. What we want is a partner and soul mate; someone attuned to our needs, who see us for who we are, not the cars or fat wallet or sexiness.

We need someone who knows our dreams and sees our fears and insecurities because our dreams are so high that it scares us. Someone who calms our fears; motivates us to be better and who cheers us on.

We need someone we can be ourselves with, and who knows us as much and even better than we know ourselves, someone that can be our confidant, who we are not afraid to confess our mistakes and shortcomings to, and not have to keep up the ‘’macho’’ façade with, someone we can lean on when we are weak. Keeping up an act is so tiresome and we get tired easily and move on if we can’t be ourselves with you.

We need someone who understands our silence, looks into our eyes and sees our soul, who will hold our hands and whisper encouragement. We need someone we can make a life with, and look forward to going home to every day.
That’s whom we want and we won’t stop until we have found her.

Death at the gate

There was a stampede, hundreds of feet rushed past in the direction of the open fields, away from the city gates. Greed was evident in the eyes of the few that bothered to give him a cursory glance, not in any one did he see pity or a desire to help.




He winced as several pairs of feet trampled on him in their rush to get ahead of the others, and several others fell as they stumbled on his body lying on the floor. Several others had fallen too, pushed roughly by the throng coming behind. He saw a young girl not more than nineteen years lying a few feet from him with her hands raised up and a her lips parted to utter a weak cry for help that was muffled by the noise of people shouting and cursing and whooping. None listened. None cared.



He struggled to get up, lifting his head from the floor but he realized to his dismay that he couldn’t move his legs. He looked at his legs and a groan escaped his lips; his two legs were broken and the bones were jutting out from the skin. He lay back down waiting for the madness- because that was what this is- to be over and then perhaps someone would spot him and come to his aid.



The stampede had been caused by the news from two lepers that had arrived the king’s palace earlier that day. They told the king how in desperation they had decided to go to the Assyrian camp and turn themselves over resigning to the possibility of being killed. But they had been shocked to find the camp empty with all their supplies intact and garments strewn over like they had left in haste. The supplies were enough to feed the entire city for a month they said.



He had laughed at the lepers’ story, and had told the king that it was a ploy by the lepers to get some food from the king’s table. But the king would not hear of it, the event of the previous day was still fresh in his mind and he hoped this was a fulfillment of the good news that had been delivered by the seer.




He had laughed inwardly at the king. Just because an old fool and self acclaimed prophet had come barging into the king’s palace to declare that in a day’s time, there would be surplus of food in the city after months of famine, the king was ready to believe these rejects. Unlike the king and other chiefs present who had hung on every word the prophet had said, he had challenged him. Even if God were to open windows in heaven, he had told him to his face, it was impossible that there would be surplus of food in just a day.




The king had sent to confirm the news of the lepers and the messengers had returned stunned. There was no one in the Assyrian’s camp. They had gone further along the highway and saw that garments were strewn all over the roadside, like they were thrown aside in a haste to flee. It was a mystery. Why would the Assyrian army flee and from whom? They had also confirmed that the supplies they found in the Assyrian camp were enough to feed the whole city for months. That was when the news was circulated round the city and the stampede had begun. The king then appointed him to control the traffic and oversee the affairs at the gate.




Now he lay bleeding on the floor, and his eyes were struggling to stay awake. The words of the prophet were haunting him




‘’ You will see it with your eyes but will not eat of it’’




The words had sounded hollow and empty before, but the full import was now weighing on him; he was going to die. He was sure of it.




It was becoming more difficult to keep his eyes open and he surrendered to the darkness as it closed around him, the scurrying of feet and noise around him also began to fade. And the last word he remembered before breathing his last were




‘’By this time tomorrow, a measure of fine flour shall be sold for a shekel’’

Glory

Glory