By Associate Editor Yankuba Jambang
THE LETHAL REDEEMER
Many years had gone by
still I was in static inertia
many years had gone by,
still I was in utopia;
yet I had my tongue
many years had gone by
yet I had my belly
And a Friday morning came
with a new man to redeem-
a man with scripture;
a man with sword
and with sweet utterances-
like a skylark, I flutter
and like penguins, we danced and hovered
A new day was born;
ideas and ideologies
flow like Futa Jallon does
with blindness of river bone,
blindness indeed-
the redeemers deed:
redemption of curtailed voices and dried tummies!
A dozen years of redemption;
scores of disappearances
a dozen years of redemption;
multitudes of repression
a dozen years of redemption;
countless sirens of confusion-
continuous shower of tears!
I
wished I were in static inertia,
we wished we were in utopia
I wished I had my tongue once more,
we wished we had our tummies once more
I wished I never saw the redeemer,
we wished we had had no Friday mornings!
Oh, Fridays always good, but the lethal redeemer!
By Yankuba Jambang
Composed September 29, 2006, for Fair View Southdale Hospital Showcase event.
Another poem by Jambang entitled "The Worlds" could be read at www.poetry.com
The "Worlds" was published in an anthology in the summer of 2002 by the
International Library of Poetry/International Society of Poetry (ISP)
in Maryland.