The devil is a liar. Always has been, always will be. And yes, it's scriptural.

Many a saint will tell you that he is also crafty in an I-didn't-see-it-coming sort of way.

Like all Nigerians, I come from a large family. Qualified thus because even if you're the only child of only children, it’s a given that your parents have a dozen cousins each who themselves have enough offspring to match the gene pool of the most fertile of traditional rulers.

● noun

an act or instance of placing close together or side by side, especially for comparison or contrast.

Yet

In this

One case

There is none.

Never has been.

Never will be.

We are

none of us

either

black or white.

Nor even

the colour

we each

profess

the other

to be.

A year

That shocked and ravaged us.

Debilitated and devastated

Tested our resolve

And often found us wanting.

The year of the unknown quantity

And dangerous lessons.

The year of life

Hanging by a string.