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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8 Comments
Mandy
January 05, 08:33I 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!!!
Pankar
January 05, 10:59This is concentrated words, focused perspective and consistent versing, the poet took me on that journey.
I seldom read poems BTW
Vhar.
January 05, 11:10?
Dunder
January 06, 01:01Powerful 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, 11:20Lol @ MFM state of mind. We ain’t playing this year.
Rapum
January 06, 09:55Why did I not read this earlier, so that my AMEN would thunder?
BRYAN PETERS
January 06, 18:48Oshey my dear. Men are not smiling o. Amen o jare
HUMAN
January 07, 20:11Amen!! Amen!!