The Night Griots Poem by Tony Adah

Last night was cool and calm
It rained
But then there was fumigation
And more deaths
Of ants and mosquitoes and little
Tailless geckos falling off the walls.

Tonight is hot and humid
And public electricity failing as usual
Has casted darkness upon the house
Where the buzzing griots
Of the night folklore
Are drunken with our blood.

But the usual thing was omitted
The children's blame as well as ours
In the windows, the screens were left open
And some beasts had a field day
Drinking our blood
And just just in the last crow
Of the morning roosters
Public electricity was on
Then we saw the mosquitoes cankers
And blood stains
Like camwood on the body of witches.