When was the last time you dated? Take a closer look at this; you have been on dates but they are just not working out or you have not been on a date for so long you can hardly recall how long. You have not dated anyone in awhile is not equivalent to “no lad asked you out”. You have been getting tons and tons of propositions but they are just not right. Sure sometimes you have to give it a go, be open-minded and try your luck but you are now tired of settling for second best.

 What is second best? For me, second best is when you decide to date someone just for the heck of it. Maybe your friends think you are “pickie” or you just want a boyfriend and you decide to give it a go. These are not good enough reasons for me to date anyone. Sure, the guy fits an ideal man specification; he’s tall, cute, ambitious, and youthful, whatever fits your spec; yet he just not right. You feel nothing. You went on first date, you felt nothing. After three months of dating, you still feel nothing. I don’t beat about the bush. If I don’t feel a thing after few conversations, I will never feel “a thing”.

Sometimes, you don’t get the feeling at all, you don’t expect it yet it creeps up on you. So you like him now, you look for signs that he feels the same way. You find out that he likes you. Then you worry about what he likes about you and what he wants from you. Right, physical attraction comes first but you don’t want a man that is only physically attracted to you. You want to know if there are other things that he likes about you. You are tired of being a trophy or sexual toy? Or you never want to be a trophy? So you need to know. You ponder over it. You ask him straight up and realised he thinks you are fit and pretty. How do you feel?

 Disappointed, thrown, torn and defeated. Yet again, another one refused to see beyond the beauty. To rub insult upon injury, some guys believe you have at least 4 boyfriends just because you are pretty. Some guys automatically think you are taken. You are attracting weirdoes. The guys you really like are not completely into you and you feel like you are the one always trying to mend or bridge your relationships. Something is always an obstacle between you and him. You got tired of it all and went back to your little cocoon, the single life.

Yet, the world won’t let you be. You get asked all the time why are you single and you have no proper answer. Then you realised, you been waiting for a lifetime and you are still waiting. Like a queue that is never ending, it still not your turn. Everywhere you turn, you see couples and you look away. You just don’t want to think about it. Your mother is pestering you about your lack of boyfriend and you just suppress all your emotions. Your extended family are constantly reminding you of marriage and babies. Your friends are always asked if there is a bloke in your life. Your friends think you need deliverance because you are too pretty to be single. So you ask yourself, what do I have? I’m pretty, educated, charming, friendly, etc. So, what do I lack? Why am I still single?

 Why do some pretty girls have it tough in love stakes? It is because they refuse to settle for what they don’t want. Although, they took into consideration everything their mother says but they don’t let it influence them. Patience is a virtue. Good things come to girls who wait.

By:Miss Latifat

 
To be sincere, there are really no hard and fast rules in this game
All that is needed is: be open and sensitive
Let your heart and thinking be in sync
Also, always be prepared.

Others call it cheeky,
You call it survival.
Others tag it cunning,
You call it survival.

But be careful my brother
Lest you defy the check list
That says; love your neighbour as thyself that life may continue
And love the lord your God with all of your heart, your strength and your every thing

There it is, standing out!
The only guideline to this game of survival
You can only survive
If ye, are prepared to love

By:Modupe Bakare for MEBB

He walked home in triumph
Its been a long day
The adage that says the fruit is only for those who labour
Now means a lot more to him

He scurried down the path
Imaging the smile that will be on her face
When she sees the game
It is worth every of his sweat

Far ahead looked smoky
Never mind, my vision is becoming impaired, he said to himself
Then he saw the hunter, roasting something that looks like him
The game dropped off his mouth

He ran to check their hole
Alas! It was blocked
He ran to see if he could make his way in, through their emergency exit
Only then did he see blood trail

He ran back close enough to see the hunter and the roast
There she was, hanging upside down over a fire
All he could think of was her last statement
I will love you till I die… she squeaked!

BY:Modupe Bakare for MEBB

It was on a breezy night
After an evening with the social elites,
A dance with his fairest
And a cuddle with his children
He took the jump off his suite’s balcony
In the garden he laid, twenty four floors away from his life

He was his parent’s favorite
His childhood was perfect
But deep down, he envied the deprived
He wanted their life

If only you lived his youth
Then you will understand the meaning of exuberance
It was every teenagers dream
But the more who loved him
The more of himself he disliked

He bagged the best honours
All over him where the biggest law firms
A great job and a multi-account
The richer he became, the poorer he became
He lost it! He lost himself.

It was mutual at first
Then he became obsessed
In all, she was possessed
He thought she could fill the emptiness
Alas, she was meant to complement
Not complete his unrest

They came along, every mother’s delight
They could melt any heart from the heavy to the light,
So identical and both his
He thought to himself, maybe they could return the bliss

Not so long after,
He realised we all have our lives to live
Every night he thought to himself,
I will wake tomorrow to this same life that I live

He didn’t have to cough attention to himself
Stress free, a definition of his life
Empty was his world
He never could identify with himself

At the age of forty
Everyone describes him a success
Not relative to himself
Rather to the world
Yet in him
He could not find a self

One last social,
One last dance,
One last cuddle,
Thinking, at least he had the chance to say goodbye
With a wine in hand and then a last sip to this life
He made his jump off, free from this life.

By:Modupe Bakare for MEBB

‘Twas sighted afar off,
Is it because I have been starved?
Or is that truly a light?
A walk ahead, through bumps and thumps
The more I walked towards it,
The farther away it seemed to move
But it surely is a ray of light
Streaming into the tunnel of my fate

Not stopping, still walking
Knowing in the end, I will come out alive
But a question in my mind lingers
Knowing that it is a precursor to discerning
How far apart the walls are
And how lengthy the stay is.
No one denies that:
There is a light at the end of a tunnel
But how dark is the darkness of one’s tunnel?

By:Modupe Bakare for MEBB

What is the right word to say to a soul that hurts?
What is the right way to clean a heart that bleeds?
What is the right art to draw on a paper that is torn?
What would you say if you are the victim?

What will you do if all of your sunshine is gone?
What will you do to fix a ripping mind?
What will you do when suddenly you have no one to fall back on?
What can you do when you do not have a say?

How can you express the ultimate pain?
How can you think of a future with such an absence?
How can you ask the questions you know will never be answered?
How do you fight what you do not see?

Some day the tears will cease to flow
Some day the wound will heal
Some day the clouds will make way for the sun
Save the memories before they start to fade.

By:Modupe Bakare for MEBB.