Adhiambo by Gabriel Okara

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I hear many voices

like it’s said a madman hears;

I hear trees talking

like it’s said a medicine man hears.

Maybe I’m a madman,

I’m a medicine man.

Maybe I’m mad,

for the voices are luring me,

urging me from the midnight

moon and the silence of my desk

to walk on wave crests across a sea.

Maybe I’m a medicine man

hearing talking saps,

seeing behind trees;

but who’s lost his powers

of invocation.

But the voices and the trees

are now name-spelling and one figure

silence-etched across

the moonface is walking, stepping

over continents and seas.

And I raised my hand –

my trembling hand, gripping

my heart as handkerchief

and waved and waved – and waved –

but she turned her eyes away