WHATEVER happened to the elephant –
Hurrah for Thunder –
The elephant, tetrarch of the jungle:
With a wave of the hand
He could pull four trees to the ground;
His four mortar legs pounded the earth:
Wherever they treaded,
The grass was forbidden to be there.
Alas! the elephant has fallen –
Hurrah for thunder –
But already the hunters are talking about pumpkins:
If they share the meat let them remember thunder.
The eye that looks down will surely see the nose;
The finger that fits should be used to pick the nose.
Today-for tomorrow, today becomes yesterday:
How many million promises can ever fill a basket...
If I don’t learn to shut my mouth I’ll soon go to hell,
I, Okigbo, town-crier/ together with my iron bell.
Christopher Okigbo
Christopher Ifekandu Okigbo was born in 1930. He was a Nigerian poet and he is today widely acknowledged as the outstanding postcolonial English-language African poet and one of the major modernist writers of the twentieth century. He died in 1967 while fighting for the independence of Biafra.
Hurrah for Thunder –
The elephant, tetrarch of the jungle:
With a wave of the hand
He could pull four trees to the ground;
His four mortar legs pounded the earth:
Wherever they treaded,
The grass was forbidden to be there.
Alas! the elephant has fallen –
Hurrah for thunder –
But already the hunters are talking about pumpkins:
If they share the meat let them remember thunder.
The eye that looks down will surely see the nose;
The finger that fits should be used to pick the nose.
Today-for tomorrow, today becomes yesterday:
How many million promises can ever fill a basket...
If I don’t learn to shut my mouth I’ll soon go to hell,
I, Okigbo, town-crier/ together with my iron bell.
Christopher Okigbo
Christopher Ifekandu Okigbo was born in 1930. He was a Nigerian poet and he is today widely acknowledged as the outstanding postcolonial English-language African poet and one of the major modernist writers of the twentieth century. He died in 1967 while fighting for the independence of Biafra.
No comments:
Post a Comment