Close To These Bitter Threats And Sweet Traps Of Life Poem by Niki Nicholas Nkuna

I could not escape the splash from the puddle perturbed by the passing car
My jump was not fast enough to outstrip the speed of the splash

I know that my mind cannot drive me away
From the veering car avoiding disturbance
I know that the race is fast when I have not joined it
I can choose to let it pass me by or pass me over
I know that the head is not far
From being overrun by the vehicle of innocence
The fall may be the slight trip of the mind
Causing the step to leave the body behind
I know that the villain is lacking in the bush
Behind the walls and mingling in the throng colourless
My attention spells in low gear
Because there was no red colour to see the villain
With the exception of the draw card
Of the vision to reach my destination

The machines in the factory munch any time
During the loss of alert or step
I may be the victim of the weapons of destruction
When I’m not even the sacrificial land
Run past or alongside a cry for saving our souls
May result in me losing my head through a misdirected bullet
The window of my house bringing in fresh air
May let in the fly of steel that will pass along
With my life by the other window

Nobody will know the cause of sorrow except by luck
The poison of food moves insidiously through my body
To end my life as early as when I touch the pain of discomfort
Thus Doctors have the audacity to tell me to go live next to the grave
So I can defeat the cancer by falling into the grave
The priest will pray over the cancer clutching the straws not flesh

Even the most daring beauty lies next to calamity
Heavy rains will cause the mud wall to flatten the bloom
Causing the mother to cry piteously next to the second
Unsteady wall shaking like the bamboo stem

Nature makes me to rejoice until my mind
Becomes numb not to see the smoke
The rain storm flooding beyond urine, rock fall or volcano
I may jump and think I’m clever, claiming I saw it coming
I may hide under a shelter and claim to have seen
The rainstorm’s ominous approach
I may run away from the rock fall or volcano
And claim to have heard the sound or seen the rocks
Shooting above the burning hill or mountain
I may escape from the burning dwelling
And claim to have smelt the smoke
Like any human being

I’m close to these bitter threats and sweet traps of life
It’s like a shadow which I can’t divorce
Even if I jumped higher except by death
When I and danger have resolved to have a sound sleep
I wander if I may be wrong when I say the shadow has won!

N Nkuna,7 June 2013