The Ritual Prayer Of Malediction

The Ritual Prayer Of Malediction

The Hereafter, Like a Dirge:

The hereafter like a dirge comes calling softly

Mighty Father, we have sacrificed

Let us not die till we reach old age

Mighty Father, God of waters

Long, long lasts the head of the grey

Mighty Father, God of waters

We bid for long life, for grey hair

Just as the vulture never dies young.

 

Never dies young, never dies young!

The vulture never dies young

Those who insult us will not grow old

Those who summon the snake will die by him

The jackals who lie in wait

To eat the flesh of the innocent searching for life and love

Those jackals will wander and be lost

They will be like hole-ridden calabashes

Collecting and collecting but never full

Those who haunt us will be haunted

Scattered, carried with the wind

 

We have sacrificed, Father

All we ask is to be us and nothing more

God of waters, Majesty, we plead

We no longer ask that you guide our steps aright

For we have walked them with our own feet

We ask that you maim those who maim us,

That you strike them like a serpent

Leave small wounds oozing mortal poison.

Trap them like the spider, let them struggle and struggle

Struggle only to die

 

We no longer ask to be like the spirit antelope

Evading the bullet of the hungry hunter

We no longer ask to be the spirit bird dodging the arrows of the archer

Now, we ask that the guns explode in the hand of the hunter

The bullet and the arrows shall return to their masters

We curse the hunter to go blind suddenly

Suddenly, let him stumble as one does on a moonless night

Let him trip and fall and let him rise to fall again

We ask to become the scorpion

Small, smooth skinned, hidden within the bowels of the earth

Let he who puts his hand within to dig us out from hiding

Be stung to death.

 

Yet we beseech, we ask humbly,

Is this to be our destiny, a fate glazed with struggle and strife

A punishment of the blood and heart,

Why are we paying for the goods that we did not buy?

 

Child,

A swimmer often dies of swimming

A warrior often dies in battle

The parrot is killed for his plumage

The cutlass is destroyed slowly

Slowly, by the purpose for which it was created.

Written by Cece

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  1. Mandy
    January 05, 08:33 Reply

    I had to check the definition of malediction after reading this. It says: the act of calling down a curse that invokes evil… ?

    I like.

    I like these verses especially:

    “We ask that you maim those who maim us,
    That you strike them like a serpent
    Leave small wounds oozing mortal poison.
    Trap them like the spider, let them struggle and struggle
    Struggle only to die.”

    Amen!

    “We no longer ask to be like the spirit antelope
    Evading the bullet of the hungry hunter
    We no longer ask to be the spirit bird dodging the arrows of the archer
    Now, we ask that the guns explode in the hand of the hunter
    The bullet and the arrows shall return to their masters
    We curse the hunter to go blind suddenly
    Suddenly, let him stumble as one does on a moonless night
    Let him trip and fall and let him rise to fall again.”

    AMEN!! Yassss Lord!

    “We ask to become the scorpion
    Small, smooth skinned, hidden within the bowels of the earth
    Let he who puts his hand within to dig us out from hiding
    Be stung to death.”

    Preacheet! AMEN! AMEN!! AMEN!!!

  2. Pankar
    January 05, 10:59 Reply

    This is concentrated words, focused perspective and consistent versing, the poet took me on that journey.

    I seldom read poems BTW

  3. Dunder
    January 06, 01:01 Reply

    Powerful and well weaved. This gives me that Niyi Osundare vibe. From some of the verses, I guess you are Yoruba. Wow! Weldone! And Amen O! Like the banana tree slap against its trunk, enemies will receive in their own camps the evil they intend for us or initiate against us. This year, it is an MFM state of mind.

    • Malik
      January 06, 11:20 Reply

      Lol @ MFM state of mind. We ain’t playing this year.

  4. Rapum
    January 06, 09:55 Reply

    Why did I not read this earlier, so that my AMEN would thunder?

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