The Poem Is About A Shattered Woman Who Lost Her Child During Labour And The Pain She Felt. Poem by Joseph Ikhenoba

A WOMAN IN LABOUR

You can't know how the clanging bell of death

Chimes at the hour of wrangling birth

Until it costs you your breath.

I last saw a white ewe

At the forage of the green field

Gasping for air, at the anchorage of deeds.

You know she was bumpy and heavy

In agony, rattling and pushing

Of her innocent lamb to the earth.

Then, I gawked through the window panes

Glaring at her circles through the pain.

Like birds in white aprons, they pushed the lamb.

Towards the wretched earth.

But the vultures and eagles stood at a sycamore

Waggling their crowns, to feed on its carrion.

Suddenly, they stopped and drops of tears

Cried a river.

"He's no more! He's no more! "

The white sparrows groaned.

Ah! She flooded the pillows like a bereaved hound

My hollow spine hunched, its cords straining.

May be the golden coin will shine upon the storm?

I don't know.

I flapped to my nest

In solemnness of blurry stars.