House Fire
By Chikayla
If I were to describe a house fire,
I would describe the moment the flames
begin to destroy those things that can never be replaced.
Like red wine spilled down a white shirt,
the fire leaves a stain of spoiled material in its wake.
Photograph albums
containing memories once sharp and crisp with every detail of every face
are consumed by the blaze,
it belches smoke that obscures the photographs of the grandchildren on the mantelpiece,
what were their names again?…
She no longer remembers.
Fire caresses the crooked spectacles until they melt in its embrace;
now she will never find her glasses.
The demented fire spreads like a disease
sofas catching fire from carpets,
then it streaks up curtains like a mass of leaves spurted by a gust of wind on a dry day in Autumn;
they crackle and flit about on the breeze in an array of reds, browns and auburns.
Veins, arteries and nerves of the house
where electricity and water once flowed
are frayed, melted, dysfunctional.
If I were to describe a house fire,
I would describe how memories are left
faded in the flames.
House fire is a poem on Alzheimer’s disease (written by Chikayla and first published on edusounds.com.ng). The poem relates to Dr Olajide’s most recent research into the use of pomegranate drug to stem Alzheimer’s disease.
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Dr Olumayokun Olajide received his Ph.D. in Pharmacology from the University of Ibadan in Nigeria where he investigated anti-inflammatory properties of natural products. He was a Humboldt Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Center for Drug Research (Pharmaceutical Biology), Department of Pharmacy, University of Munich, Germany where he studied cellular and molecular pharmacology of anti-inflammatory natural products, focusing on Nuclear Factor-kappa B (NF-κB) signalling. Part of his postdoctoral work was carried out in the Neurochemistry Research Laboratory, Department of Psychiatry, University of Freiburg Medical School where he conducted research on cellular and molecular pharmacology of anti-neuroinflammatory natural products.
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In this conversation, we discuss many issues, amongst which are:
- The use of garlic as an anti-inflammatory substance
- The use of mango tree bark in herbal medicines
- The successful integration of alternative and conventional medicines in Germany
- The need to standardise the production and consumption of herbal medicines in Nigeria
- The science behind the practise of using Calabar bean (Esere) in detecting witchcraft
- The challenges of working as an immuno-pharmacologist in Nigeria and the UK
- Dr Olajide’s inspirations into studying and practising pharmacology
- His recent research on Alzheimer’s disease
Enjoy!
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