{"id":139,"date":"2015-09-26T03:36:48","date_gmt":"2015-09-26T03:36:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mtls.wpcenter.io\/staging\/?p=139"},"modified":"2026-10-14T16:02:35","modified_gmt":"2026-10-14T16:02:35","slug":"donna-ogunnaike-spokenword","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mtls.ca\/issue21\/donna-ogunnaike-spokenword\/","title":{"rendered":"Donna Ogunnaike"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/yq7FPpcbbSc\" width=\"420\" height=\"300\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What do You Wear?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I wear Gucci and Zannotti<br>\nBought from lands far and exotic<br>\nA million Naira worth of weave-on<br>\nWith heels that can pay the bills<br>\nI wear my outdoor designer outfits<br>\nThough my heart is filled with pits<br>\nI wish someone would say \u201cI love you\u201d<br>\nAnd for once, actually mean it<br>\nI wear my spinsterhood like a well cut jacket<br>\nPaste on it designer labels<br>\nLike Gucci Still Single and Prada Sadness<br>\nThe fragrances that fill my empty womb<br>\nI wear the lonely reality of the independent and strong black woman<br>\nI do not know how to manipulate or scheme<br>\nSo I sew on the pretence of a warrior<br>\nAnd fix on my head a Brazilian weave<br>\nWhat do you wear?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I wear a foreign accent and own a foreign certified degree<br>\nStill at night I go to bed without electricity<br>\nI wear the morning like a burden on these Lagos streets<br>\nRepeat my daily politeness, but damn! I can\u2019t stand the heat<br>\nI wish I could go back home you know, abroad where everything is nice and neat<br>\nThe money is here however, this is the land of opportunity<br>\nIt baffles me how I have no strength to just get up and leave<br>\nYou see my Father has absolute control over me, though I am already 36<br>\nBut I wake up daily and hit the floor running!<br>\nI swear in pidgin English and curse in Yoruba when power goes out<br>\nAs soon as I step out of my bedroom door I am again the Queen<br>\nI wear my foreign accent and flaunt my foreign certified degree<br>\nPretend that I am independent and that nothing has a hold over me<br>\nWhat do you wear?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I wear the panic of a broke chic men!<br>\nLiving my life off different men<br>\nAt night my sleep is bothered by hailstones and fires<br>\nThe insults and prayers cast by the wives of some of these my men<br>\nI sort them out at that place where three roads meet at night,<br>\nMen, I will not go out without a fight<br>\nMy shoes are made by survival; I step into them without regret<br>\nI wear my reality with pride my Sister!<br>\nI can take all your men from you without breaking a sweat<br>\nThere is an upper class seat waiting<br>\nAnd someone has to pay for it<br>\nThis body won\u2019t keep firm forever<br>\nIt needs to cash out those cheques<br>\nWhat do you wear?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I wear the opportunities of my social circle<br>\nI shop at Harrods and Selfridges alone<br>\nNot because of any money I have earned myself<br>\nBut because of all of these people that I know<br>\nYou see in this world, its pedigree that matters<br>\nI am not even aware that power gets withheld<br>\nI have never known the price of diesel<br>\nThough I know what it means to be alone<br>\nBoarding houses all my life and an arranged marriage in tow<br>\nStill, I have come to love this man<br>\nAlthough he is hardly at home<br>\nBut this is the marriage my Mother had<br>\nAnd one I have come to know<br>\nI wear upper class and super exposure<br>\nThis is the life I live<br>\nI will have it no other way<br>\nWhat\u2026 do you wear?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I wear the marriage of opportunity<br>\nI am the one with that diamond ring<br>\nI don\u2019t care for him and he doesn\u2019t love me,<br>\nStill I am friends with all of his family<br>\nHe is sleeping with one of my friends\u2019<br>\nIts alright though I have slept with her husband<br>\nMy mind is steady and focused<br>\ninfidelity cannot stand in my way<br>\nWe all know what we are here for<br>\nI\u2018ve given my children his name<br>\nWhen him and his father are dead<br>\nTheir legacy and riches will be ours to gain<br>\nI saw my Mother suffer shame and penury<br>\nAs the fourth wife of six;<br>\nSo from school I carefully chose \u201cfriends\u201d with whom I would mix<br>\nSee, I lied and cheated my way up here<br>\nAnd I am not about to lose it!<br>\nI wear the schemes of a street wise woman<br>\nMy Mother taught me well.<br>\nWhat do you wear?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I wear a diet,<br>\nAnd fashion trends and gossip.<br>\nI am concerned with not knowing<br>\nKnowledge is power and the tabloids are there to supply a wealth of information<br>\nI wear the knowledge of everyone\u2019s names at parties,<br>\nI know where they work, what they earn and who they recently slept with<br>\nI go to bed content; I have done my daily bit<br>\nIt doesn\u2019t matter that regarding my own life and destiny, I do not know s@it!<br>\nMeanwhile\u2026What do you wear?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I wear the burden of one that used to believe<br>\nI no longer trust myself<br>\nThere was once I would have fought for righteousness<br>\nBut what\u2019s that about? I\u2019m now a complete mess!<br>\nEach one I see fights for nothing substantial<br>\nOnly shoes and big named weave-on<br>\nThey clamor for fame and cheap fortune<br>\nAnd those sickening travel bags by Louis Vuitton<br>\nI see them arrive at the airports in high heels and perfume even though that place stinks!<br>\nSee, I tried to balance faith and reality<br>\nAnd came up with a weird mix<br>\nI spoke logic at posh dinner parties<br>\nAnd listened patiently to atheists<br>\nI even slept with this one guy, but, what a waste of sin!<br>\nHe had no bedroom skills, and he never once proposed to me!!!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Now I am sick from double dealing between faith and worldiness<br>\nI\u2019m struggling to find my way back home<br>\nFighting to rise again through all of this mess<br>\nI\u2019m tired, in this fight for faith, of being all alone<br>\nBeing the only one to truly believe<br>\nThat, men can be faithful and women submissive<br>\nThat, prayers don\u2019t need the addition of juju to make them effective<br>\nThat, teenage children do not need expensive mobile phones<br>\nThat, there\u2019s nothing wrong with abstinence<br>\nThere are more virgins world over than a paltry number, 6<br>\nThat, we are not all \u201cthose born again Christians!\u201d<br>\nYou know, the ones who sleep around and in Church \u201cbless\u201d<br>\nThat, they are not all terrorists who bow to pray<br>\nAnd rise to follow the faith of the Prophet Mohamed!<br>\nI\u2019m sick and tired of trying to be real<br>\nWhen my friends panic when they are not seen flying upper class<br>\nI\u2019m sick of girls emptying their savings to buy just one big-named bag<br>\nThen turn around and ask me \u201cplease can you pay for my meal at Mama Cass?!\u201d.<br>\nI wear the burden of the tired and worn out believer of my faith<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What do you wear?<br>\nI am doctor, I am lawyer<br>\nI am musician, I am student<br>\nI am educated; albeit only in my own mind<br>\nI am a sponsor, I am defendant<br>\nI am proper, I am a runs girl<br>\nI am married, I am single<br>\nI am fulfilled, I am discontent<br>\nI am a villager; I have just come to Lagos<br>\nI am a student; I am dating a politician<br>\nI am faithful, I am promiscuous<br>\nI am a candidate, I am a principal<br>\nI am a believer, I am atheist<br>\nI am prosecutor, I am judge<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I wear this life daily<br>\nAnd the things I do that define me<br>\nI wear my good and bad decisions<br>\nand the path on which they have led me<br>\nI wear all that I have become<br>\nAnd sometimes not everything that I should be<br>\nI wear the burden of being<br>\nI wear the burden of living<br>\nI wear that WOMAN.<br>\nWhat do YOU wear?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><b>What do You Wear?<\/b><br \/>\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":2022,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"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:\/\/mtls.ca\/issue21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mtls.ca\/issue21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mtls.ca\/issue21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mtls.ca\/issue21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mtls.ca\/issue21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/mtls.ca\/issue21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2267,"href":"https:\/\/mtls.ca\/issue21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139\/revisions\/2267"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mtls.ca\/issue21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mtls.ca\/issue21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mtls.ca\/issue21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mtls.ca\/issue21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}