I went to the home of my past,
Those sky scrapers of whiteness
Planted in a row like a parade of soldiers,
Waiting to kill who?
The homes of my ancestors looked beautiful like sepulchres outside, Yet inside, like the mouth of the sepulchre.
They were dark as a hungry yawn longing to swallow me.
The dead bones looked like teeth glistening white,
Deadly like the agape jaws of the Dracula
hungry to drink my blood and add me as a collection of teeth.
Owls sang the sad song of the dead,
Inviting the dead to join the dead man’s culture
whose door was opened in grey wrappings
like the hair of my granny,
Of silver mesh that hid darkness, a predator’s net
That was decorated with the carcasses of the feasted.
That home of my past beckoning,
Calling me in a hungry jealous yawn,
Was populated by highways of bushes
Where only the serpents dreaded not,
And black jacks longed for lifts.
Its silence, deathly cold, yet urging:
“Come my son, come join us.
Come join as we feast on the alive.
Come hide in death, come my son!”
In that eerie moment of deathly doubt
Wisdom of life from above illumined in me
Like lightning in a dark storm,
And I saw the dead mourning for the living dead,
And the living dead mourning for their dead pasts
Their heads hidden in ash like ostriches in sand
Their rivers of sorrow nourishing dead plants
As the dead danced on their exposed behinds
To their wails of sorrow laughing at them!
I saw all this in wisdom and as fast as my legs brought me,
I ran from my dead past, to my living future.
Check nearby libraries
Buy this book
Not now sweet Desdemona is the story of Africa’s colonization retold in the imagery of a traditional African man losing his homestead to a modern Christian woman. Rich in poetry and songs, it’s a fusion of literature, history and philosophy and its style is a cross between okot p’Bitek’s songs and Thus Spake Zarathustra.
Check nearby libraries
Buy this book
Subjects
colonization, Desdemona, Thus Spake Zarathustra, ChristianityPeople
okot p’BitekShowing 1 featured edition. View all 1 editions?
Edition | Availability |
---|---|
1 |
aaaa
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
Book Details
Edition Notes
Classifications
The Physical Object
ID Numbers
Excerpts
Page 6,
added by BabeRuka.
I choose it simply because it is the beginning of the book!
Links outside Open Library
Community Reviews (0)
Feedback?January 6, 2013 | Edited by BabeRuka | Edited without comment. |
January 6, 2013 | Edited by BabeRuka | Edited without comment. |
January 6, 2013 | Edited by BabeRuka | Added new cover |
January 6, 2013 | Edited by BabeRuka | Added new cover |
December 11, 2009 | Created by WorkBot | add works page |