Nightmare Poem by Frank Chipasula

Darkness chained me to my tattered reed mat
The hand of tyranny sprinkled
The soot of ignorance in my eyes, and sleep
Hammered my head with slogans
Then a nightmare stumbled on my sprawled life
Tripped on the alarm of my heart
And set me singing a healing song.

With song I bandage my ravaged land
With the thread of song I sew the chopped heads
Back on the shoulders of the plucked flowers.
I plug the neck gush with a war chant
With a sharp spear whose tongue sings
I rip the veil of darkness from our land
And the nightmare flees my secret light.

September 18, 1984