"I saw Him" by Temitope Arogundade

I think I saw him
I must have seen him
He was lying in the path I took
I didn’t notice him then
As I looked out of the bus
I saw him
 
Lying at the roundabout at Obalende
Sprawled across it, better put
One leg actually on the road
People passing around him
Gingerly trying to avoid stepping on him
I saw him
 
He looked like a young boy
I estimate around 13 or 14
He was wearing a dirty Grey tracksuit
Tracksuit had red lettering and a red waistband
He was also wearing black boxers
I saw him
 
I thought he was sleeping
Then I began to fear he was dead
It looked like there was no movement
Obalende was at its noisiest
If he was alive, how come he wasn’t moving
I saw him
 
I began to panic
Why was there a dead teenager on the road and no one is concerned?
I almost put my head out of the bus
Trying to detect chest movement, to indicate breathing
Finally I saw it, he is alive, whew!
I saw him
 
I then thought, let me take a picture of this
Let me capture this and show the world
Then I wondered, wasn’t it the world that was passing by him?
Wasn’t I part of the world that will look and say ‘Eyah’?
And what did I do? Nothing
I saw him
 
The bus is full, we are moving
The bus is getting closer to him
I can see his face now
His face is bruised and swollen, lips twice the size of normal lips
Yet he still sleeps
I saw him
 
Then I wondered, what is his back story
Did he have a family?
Did he have a house or any other place to sleep?
Why sleep at a roundabout?
Why was he bruised and dirty?
I saw him
 
Why didn’t anyone help?
Why didn’t I do something?
Have we become so desensitized that we just look and walk away?
Is this a city problem, would it have been different in a village?
Or are we so preoccupied by our own problems that we cant see anyone else’s?
I saw him
 
I saw him
Everyone saw him
And as far as I saw, no one did anything to help him