Prince Of The Delta Poem by Frank Bana

Humankind is born once more
With her lost umbilical chord
Born in low Angolan hills
Where the clean water spills forth

At the village by the river
Huddled tight up to the border
A placid tide runs slowly by
Fisher boys cast off their lines

Sunsets dissolve into silence
Tiny flames lick walls of clay
Children run in smoke-filled clearings
Eager for the evening catch
Dogs await the tails and scraps

Spindle limbs jive in the clearing
Jumping in Maskanda style
Chanting for the girls from Maun
Waiting for the Weekend Special
Girls that never come to town

Sunlight for my winter morning
In this future century
Eyes filled red with memory
Of my sleeping by the river
Cosa, life-giver, rests with me

I've been watching ever since
Four wheels rested by the shoreline
At the mudbanks of Shakawe
Birthplace of Thamalakane
Now my life is borne away
Like the water hyacinth

In the first month past Sepopa
Past those in refuge from Angola
By month four, Gomare, Tsau
Caressing the riverside
Where the forest wizards hide

Come to ground at Nokaneng
Yielding up to Lake Ngami
Wildebeest arrive to die
As the winter plains run dry

Now we sleep closer together
Aging lion and newborn calf
Bedded where the waters end
At the fences of their thirst

Cool the tick-bite fever, River
Wash the tsetse-fly away
As your waters end exhausted
Some new creature now emerging

As I rest my time in turning
I see a shadow man retreating
On his fleet and burning feet
At the desert's edge to meet

Dimodimo, god of gods
Prince and guardian of the Delta
Whose hidden life is set apart
Whose stealth and silent tributaries
Traced these words into my heart.