By: John ‘Dare Okafor

Moonlight tales are tails without bodies,

They are fictions that strike no reality.

They don’t include tales like ours;

Tales of scarlet streets.

Green and blue bulbs dance at night,

With lips laden with glossy danger,

Hips graced with flesh to incite boners,

And waists carved in figures of eight.

We are tagged hedonistic traders;

Embracers of the men you deprive your body,

Genies that steal the virginity of the young;

Magicians that help old men forget

the flaccidity time has heaped on them.

You claim to see us but you don’t;

The silent sobs after each stranger’s thrust,

The daily pills gulped to prevent gestations,

The concealed transmitted infections

The vacuum steamed from incessant despair.

We are societal round pegs in square holes;

Placed first by our profession before our circumstance.

We are considered venoms to the joy of motherhood;

We are the women you warned your daughters never to become.

Ashawo is the Nigerian slang word used for describing a hoe or a prostitute.