Redemption

by Timileyin Amusan

My heart knocks carefully waiting to see my new home

This air doesn’t taste like the metallic smoke from guns
It doesn’t smell like warm innocent blood

Walking down Oxford city centre is like strolling into centuries
Where history explains itself through buildings and gardens
Where people with different cultures feed their eyes
And flash torches at the smiling buildings in broad day light –
Christ Church, Bodleian library –
I see people holding the whole city on their palm
In Nigeria, people run from old buildings because the clay crumbles
Students stroll up and down, their lives in a backpack
I hear echoey sounds of lost languages going back and fourth
S.M.I.L.E is the only language I can speak
So I say ‘Hello’ ‘bye’ with my cheeks.

In Bonn Square in the evening languages gather
to listen to the voice near the coffee shop
While others stare at the breathing statue 2 feet away
And then smile to show ‘that was amazing’

Night bus home
Disconnect myself from earth with my earphones
Staring into dark souls of different streets
Past my school
Silently to Littlemore

Shelter is expensive but safe
For once my house smells like a home
As my bed welcomed me with open arms
Like every human being in Oxford
I don’t have to sleep a lifetime on mat or sofa

Since the very first day the Oxford soil hugged my feet
It smiled and welcomed me into the life of peace