The incandescence of the wind
bothers me
in this vineyard.
Is there a searing clarity
about the noises
rising daily
from this riverbed we call our own?
The yam-tubers bleed our sorrows.
Crows in the fields
scream of despair.
Machetes pollute our food
with rust.
The masters conduct their
plunderings
with quiet murders:
The victims perform maypole dances
around the village shrines.
There is a cold fire in the air.
I hear it
consume the groins
of heroes
and shrivel the guts
of martyrs.
The name of the fire
is printed on grave stones:
names squeezed from tubers of life
and collective cowardice.
At night mothers scream
of children lost in the city fires
of children lost in neon signs
and cellars of madness.
I hear noises from the streets:
men are lost in files
or have wandered
into the fractured severity
of military gun-shots
have become a generation
drenched in petrol
camp-fired
and barbecued
in the fevers
of elections
riots
coups.
The incandescence in the air
burns inward.
Is there a name for this fear?
Is there a fearful country
in these fields
where such realities are
manufactured whole?
I heard a secret
in the burning iron of the mornings.
Animals
have delivered eggs of blood.
Women
have discovered the secret
of an inviolable flesh-haze.
There are multiple deaths
in the riverbeds
and junkyards
polluting our world
with an irascible sense
of failure.
Shall we join them
or shall we celebrate
the vision of empty offices
the short-sightedness of power.
Break the bread
of initiation into
revolt:
We shall celebrate with our
emaciated chests.
We shall clench and raise our fists
in the wonder of incandescence.
I hear a light
bursting up through
the bright blue roots
and the yellow skeletons.
We have breathed
our self-love in those bones.
We have breathed
incantations
at those worms
that ravage our serenity.
The graveyards heave.
The riverbeds sigh.
And I wake surprised:
– the incandescence has become
our own
– the skeletons have reclaimed
the lands
– a new spirit breathing phosphorous
has grown
into the blue roots of the times.