With drum accompaniment by Christopher okigbo

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AND THE HORN may now paw the air howling goodbye…

For the Eagles are now in sight:

Shadows in the horizon –

THE ROBBERS are here in black sudden steps of showers, of

caterpillars – 

THE EAGLES have come again,

The eagles rain down on us –

POLITICIANS are back in giant hidden steps of howitzers, of

detonators –

THE EAGLES descend on us,

Bayonets and cannons –

THE ROBBERS descend on us to strip us of our laughter, of our

thunder –

THE EAGLES have chosen their game,

Taken our concubines –

POLITICIANS are here in this iron dance of mortars, of

generators –

THE EAGLES are suddenly there,

New stars of iron dawn;

So let the horn paw the air howling goodbye…

O mother mother Earth, unbind me; let this be

my last testament; let this be

The ram’s hidden wish to the sword the sword’s

secret prayer to the scabbard –

THE ROBBERS are back in black hidden steps of detonators –

FOR BEYOND the blare of sirened afternoons, beyond

the motorcades;

Beyond the voices and days, the echoing highways; beyond the

latescence

Of our dissonant airs; through our curtained eyeballs,

through our shuttered sleep,

On to our forgotten selves, on to our broken images;

beyond the barricades

Commandments and edicts, beyond the iron tables,

beyond the elephant’s

Legendary patience, beyond his inviolable bronze

bust; beyond our crumbling towers –

BEYOND the iron path careering along the same beaten track –

THE GLIMPSE of a dream lies smouldering in a cave, together with the mortally wounded birds.

Earth, unbind me; let me be the prodigal; let this be the ram’s ultimate prayer to the tether…

AN OLD STAR departs, leaves us here on the shore

Gazing heavenward for a new star approaching;

The new star appears, foreshadows its going

Before a going and coming that goes on for ever…