Backward Cave-Life Poem by KEVIN MWOLE

A secret pot
brewing
A covered fire
Consuming
A hallowed craft
Diminishing
I will steal your breath.

Taboos and omens
barrenness of ancestral intellect
I will crack the walking stick
blackened by smoke and snuff
I will crush the Mbisu
besides the ashes of fires long dead
and uproot the sacred trees from this land
I will give you a place in the museum that I shall build
so that generations can learn of your
backward cave-life
forever.