He wrote;
I saw a Nigerian man at the fitness center tonight. I knew he was Nigerian and a Yoruba man because he pronounced 'eat' as 'heat,' and 'walk' as 'work.' Just the way I speak. His body stretched out of a trunk of pure muscles rooted in black power. When he walked, he carried himself with measured chaos as though he was holding a basketball between his thighs.
I saw a Nigerian man at the fitness center tonight. Though I never spoke to him, I eavesdropped on his phone call and heard he called someone my baby girl.
"Baby girl," he said,
"Tell Junior, daddy loves him. I'm still at the office, and I doubt I will come home tonight."
When he got off the call, his brows broke a sweat as he balanced his shoulders under the squat bar. He scanned me with his large brown eyes; I clutched a dumbbell with a fist of disbelief and awe.
I saw a Nigerian man at the fitness center tonight. He tied a white towel around his tapered waist as he shuffled around in the locker room looking for something. I looked around, and there's only one other person at the gym. The other person smiled and walked away from the Nigerian man and me.
I saw a Nigerian man at the fitness center tonight. He was biting his nails as he approached the shower. When he turned and saw me looking at him, he widened his eyes, straightened his lips and stared at me longer than I could bear.
I saw a Nigerian man at my fitness center tonight. He lingered on in the shower stall and scrubbed his body endlessly. By 11:25 PM, I dried my body, poured some cocoa butter on my skin, laced my Adidas and walked away as fast as I could.
I saw a Nigerian man at the fitness center tonight. I couldn't walk away from him. On my way out, the detective in me took over my dark soul and ordered me to go back. I climbed back the stairs and tiptoed to the shower holding my breath.
I saw a married Nigerian man at the fitness center tonight. He knelt down in the shower stall sucking another man's dick.
If you are his baby girl, quit trying to change him into a man you want him to be. This man has taken a knee, and the game is over.
I saw a Nigerian man at the fitness center tonight. Lord, I'm on my knees right now praying that he has the courage to tell his baby girl what keeps him back at work this late. I pray dear Lord that he quits filling his emptiness with sex and that he embraces who he is because I used to be that guy who told my wife I was working late tonight.
No comments:
Post a Comment