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VOICES BETWEEN TWO WORLDS by Mide Benedict

Excerpt: 


Wind of vengeance,Arise! Arise!Like a squirrel hunting for a palmDelivered of its plum childrenAnd when you see those childrenEat them!


Let me hear here
Let me hear there
The voice of gnashing ghosts stuck
Between Aye and Orun.

Their voices are fading
Like the moon in the early hours of the day:
Soon they will no longer be heard
And the captors will rejoice of their freedom.

Yeparipaa! Mournings in the morning
Kileripaa! Daggerings at the dusk, dangers at dawn
Kiledepaa! Song of sorrow, tears in the dust!

Who caused them to depart
Wearing the girdle of taboos
Who caused them to hang there
Where they can neither be nor be?
If I ask you, they will say:
We did not see them
Though their feet kicked the white cloak
Through this dark road
Hanging between two worlds.
I know they say the truth
I know they never lie
About the sun rising in the night.
But this I know
Yes, I do
That whoever stabbed them from behind
When they entered the shrine with their back,
Will say to the gods why they defiled the sacred place.

Yeparipaa! Mournings in the morning
Kileripaa! Daggerings at the dusk, dangers at dawn
Kiledepaa! Song of sorrow, tears in the dust!

The sixteen ones, I beg you
Let their voice not fade
Let it not fade
Let them speak more.
So those who stapled them
With power
Unto the edges of two worlds
Will wind up when the wind of vengeance
Arrives with breasts heavy with silent milk
To feed them who run as their voices pounce
On their captive hearts.

Yeparipaa! Mournings in the morning
Kileripaa! Daggerings at the dusk, dangers at dawn
Kiledepaa! Song of sorrow, tears in the dust!

Wind of vengeance,
Arise! Arise!
Like a squirrel hunting for a palm
Delivered of its plum children
And when you see those children
Eat them!

Yeparipaa! Mournings in the morning
Kileripaa! Daggerings at the dusk, dangers at dawn
Kiledepaa! Song of sorrow, tears in the dust!


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