Abiku By J. P. Clark

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Abiku

By

J. P. Clark

Coming and going these several seasons, 

Do stay out on the baobab tree, 

Follow where you please your kindred spirits 

If indoors is not enough for you.

True, it leaks through the thatch

When floods brim the banks, 

And the bats and the owls 

Often tear in at night through the eaves, 

And at harmattan, the bamboo walls 

Are ready tinder for the fire 

That dries the fresh fish up on the rack. 

Still, it's been the healthy stock

To several fingers, to many more will be

Who reach to the sun.

No longer then bestride the threshold

But step in and stay

For good. We know the knife scars 

Serrating down your back and front

Like beak of the sword-fish,

And both your ears, notched 

As a bondsman to this house,

Are all relics of your first comings.

Then step in, step in, and stay 

For her body is tired,

Tired, her milk going sour 

Where many more mouths gladden the heart.