You, the King’s slave
Who never stopped thinking
He was the King of Slaves
Then, overreach, the Tyrant’s timeless curse:
You tumbled into twilight, then
The seething purgatory of traitors. . . .
A gentle flame twirls skywards
From an unmarked mound near the city gate
Behold, Sankara rising. . . .
(Concluded)
You drove a sword through Friendship’s heart
Dumped Loyalty in an unmarked grave
And seized the throne with your blood-encrusted hands
And darkness fell upon the land
Roadsides reeked with the stench of murdered voices
The Burkinabe danfa shriveled into a pall
You broadened your brief in the network of other tyrants
Your bloodline thick like a bastard plague
Practiced puppeteers extolled your dance
Fixed your steps to the beat of their vassal drum
As they pledged all power, all privilege
To the longevity of your rule
But you saw Sankara
In the air you breathed
In the water which whetted your thirst
In the interrogating mirror of the Burkinabe eye
You saw Sankara
In the rainbow which transgressed
The darkness of your sky
In every page of your trembling Bible
You are the three-penny coin
Tossed in the wind in the cannibal
Game of dispossessing masters
The laughing jackass
Who held down his brood
For the fury of the alien whip
Common house rat
Who feigned the lineage of lions
Until History counted his claws
And uncovered a missing fire
An angry wind blew; your phantom mane
Rolled deviously down your shortening neck
(Continued next Sunday)
Tere pampa tere pampa
Tere minnan minnan tere
Dance, oh Bride
And show us the beauty your legs
The beauty of your legs
The beauty of your legs
Dance, oh Bride
And show the beauty of your legs
Tere pampa tere pampa
Shake your ankle bells
And stir our looking ears
Our looking, looking ears
Our looking, looking ears
Shake your ankle bells
And stir our looking ears
Tere pampa tere pampa
Flaunt those waist-beads
Ileke so, ileke so wowo*
So so so so
Ileke so wowo
Flaunt those wait-beads
Ilele so, ileke so wowo
Tere pampa tere pampa
A song in every stride
A lilt in every leap
Lilt in every leap
Lilt in every leap
A song in every stride
A lilt in every leap
Tere pampa tere pampa
Tere minnan minnan tere
*A luscious rumbling of beads
The Prophet did not see Korona
But Korona saw the Prophet
Day after day
Night after night
Rally after rally
Crusade upon crusade
The Holy Prophet proclaimed the sermon
From the holiest mountaintop:
“Korona is a lie, a silly, sinful lie
The Devil’s fake device to trip a gullible world
Tell me where it lives
Tell this flock its father’s name
Believe my anointed eyes: they have never
Seen that object of the world’s delirious dread
Dump those pagan masks, lest your shrouded face
Misses the favour of passing Angels
Sweat it out in crowded churches
Disdain the jab, with a gloating brag”
Lo and behold: the Prophet never saw Korona
But alas, Korona saw the Prophet
Just one moon later, his luckless lungs
Succumbed to the virulent assault of the unseen foe
The village Wag waxed lyrical the day after:
People of our Land, answer me with all your insight
Faith without Reason or Reason without Faith
Which will immunize our world against its crippling nescience?
Tere pampa tere pampa
Tere minnan minnan tere
Make me your head rock
Not your stepping stone
Stepping stone
Stepping stone
Your very head rock
Not your stepping stone
Tere minnan minnan tere
Make me your roof
Not your trampling mat
Trampling mat
Trampling mat
Make me your roof
Not your trampling mat
Tere minnan minnan tere
Pound my yam
In your biggest mortar
Your biggest mortar
Your biggest mortar
Pound my yam
In your biggest mortar
Tere minnan minnan tere
Never gather my rain
In the pit of your palm
Pit pf your palm
Pit of your palm
Don’t gather my rain
In the pit of your palm
Tere pampa tere pampa
Tere minnan minnan tere
Wax so eloquent where
The Atlantic Mountains embrace their echoes
The waiting Sea rinses the letters
In its frothy flair
As the patient sands sizzle
In their laundered intensity
A few legendary steps from a Forest named
For the inimitable Bard of the Congo**
Songbirds sweep above the trees
Their conversations held together
By a string of chatty tropes
Overheard by the listening sun
The wind wanders around the sky
In search of a worthy idiom
Liquid whispers, syllables in stone
The Talking Walls of Assilah
Converse in parables and problematic silence
Their rainbow murals redolent
Of a restless history and a geo-
Graphy of stubborn scars
Walls talk in Asilah
The past lends the present a listening ear
* An ancient town on the northwest tip of the Atlantic coast of Morocco
** Tchicaya U Tam’si.
(To Kim Soo-Woo, for putting Humanity first; and in memory of Busan, October 11, 2019)
What met me at the door
Was the open smile of books
Big, small, round, flat
Spectacular in their rainbow order
Next came the aroma
0f coffee on the brew
Sundry snacks, and tea
Gallantly green in their bags
Then, the magic melody of human voices
Warm, witty, and lyrical with laughter . . . .
In Kim Soo-Woo’s temple of songs and ideas
A literate fire dances beneath the kettle
Books read the people who read them
Fishes swim in friendly waters
When Humanity raises a song
The Universe joins in happy chorus
TO THE AIR HOSTESSES, KOREA AIR*
A thousand blessings
To this band of tireless Angels
Who make our care their own
Thirty thousand feet above the ground
They offer us the sky
As they smile above the clouds
* On board, Seoul- Los Angeles
We know what you are ‘surely against’
Now tell us what you are ‘surely for’
Left one day, right another
Your compass is a welter of spurious points
You blow so hot this minute
The very next you are cold and curt
Your word is a two-edged sword
Sharp and blunt in a common sheathe
The talking drum that you sometimes are
Your front and back never sound the same
The world surely needs clever legs
For the dance to your dizzying beat
Dawn or dusk, dusk or dawn
The world hardly knows
How to grasp your day
Your sun never stays in one sky
Sometimes okala
Sometimes okolo
Most times okala-okolo
Kala-kolo confusion, ache in the ears
Fork-tongued cobra
Viper in the vine
We know what you are ‘surely against’
Now tell us what you are ‘surely for’
I
am
a
Tree
I
bleed
when
cut
* * *
I
am
a
River
I
puke
when
polluted
* * *
I
am
the
Sky
I
leak
when
assaulted
* * *
I
am
the
Earthworm
I
break
when
bruised
Tere pampa tere pampa
Tere minnan minnan tere
Give me a place in your song
Said She-of-the-Egglike eye
Of the Egglike Eye
Of the Egglike Eye
Give me a place in your song
Said She-of-the-Egglike eye
Tere pampa tere pampa
In the valley of your song
There is a pageant of flowers
Pageant of flowers
Pageant of flowers
In the valley of your song
There is a pageant of flowers
Tere pampa tere pampa
Sweet day, sweet night
Like an echo heard between the mountains
Between the mountains
Between the mountains
Sweet day, sweet night
Like an echo heard between the mountains
Tere pampa tere pampa
Sing it solo
Make the wind your golden glee
Golden glee
Golden glee
Sing it solo
Make the wind your golden glee
Tere pampa tere pampa
Tere minnan minnan tere