Of a Friday Night in Lagos, a Gay Man, His Lover and Afrobeat

Of the seven deadliest sins in my country

A man loving another man is the first three.

It’s Friday in Lagos

meaning it’s the unholy cocktail

traffic, TGIF, Friday night doings

and I am here with my lover.

The room is the aura of love

and laughter and hands and bodies.

On days like this, I am thankful to God

for man, such masterpiece;

for mine, his hands, his lips, his soul.

I listen as he speaks

His words reach me like heaven’s arms

and I become a celestial being

finding divinity in another man’s touch

and I refuse to hear my pastor’s spewing.

Still, it’s Friday in Lagos

“I will like to dance with you.”

my lover gives me his hands,

and we surf Spotify for afrobeat

“Something African,” he says. “…and gay.”

The last part is a whisper

like we have learnt to love

in hushed whispers and silent sounds

no vowels, just consonants in the bedroom.

Here we are on a Friday night in Lagos.

“A song can’t be gay,” I should say,

but I know what he wants

and tonight is not for the intellectual.

So, I hold him and he smiles as we sway

to Callum Scott’s Boys in the Street.

Of the seven deadliest sins in my country

a man loving another man is the first three

a man caught fucking another is the other four.

Written by Brown Boy Bloom