The Distance Wailing Poem by Babatunde Idowu Ebenezer

The Distance Wailing



I heard it from afar,
The beating of the Konga with its deafening melody.
I saw it from a distance,
The burning of the fire with its blinding smoke.

I heard them from afar,
The screaming of innocent dying children.
I saw them from the distance,
The falling figures of murdered defenceless women.

The lyrics of their dirge deafening my ears,
The melody of their dying songs haunting my dreams,
Their ceaseless wailing bringing tears to my cheeks,
The aroma of their burning meat nauseating my bowels.

The streets are full of their charred bodies,
The gutters are full of their flowing blood.
The cloud above gets thicker with their smokes,
Soon it would rain of vultures.

I can hear from distance the wailing of mother Africa,
Wailing for the slaying of her children,
And would not be comforted,
For they are no more.

From Nigeria to Chad to Niger,
Their restless spirits roam the forests.
From Liberia to Cameroon to Libya,
Their undead souls wander the streets in darkness.

I listened and screamed,
I beheld and cried along with mother Africa,
And would not be comforted,
For they are no more.

Day upon day they fall,
Their throats slashed with daggers,
Their wombs opened with carving knives,
Their heads rolling in painful whirlwind dance.

Men in their primes,
Women with seeds embedded,
Children in their springs,
Innocent, defenseless, unaware and dead.

We that are mourn them,
The brokers turn their ordeal to debates,
The perpetrators claim responsibilities,
And the foreigners console us.

The daggers are wiped of blood,
The guns are cleaned and reloaded,
More bombs are made and bought,
And the wailing ceases not.

Competing with the sound of thunder,
Splashing like the sound of rain on iron roof,
Deafening, heart shattering and maddening,
The wailing of death from a distance.

The Distance Wailing
Sunday, July 28, 2013
Topic(s) of this poem: war and peace
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