Aftermath by Funso Aiyejina

(For Fatima Vatsa)

Each new life is a descendant of a graying form

Every new season a rebellion against an older norm

But the cactus survives the swing of the pendulum

Not through the collusive allegiance of a chameleon

But through a tenacity of will and a clarity of vision.

Poetry is rebellion, insists Neruda. The poet in rebellion

Is a cactus in bloom, nurtured by miracles in the subsoil.

Was the warrior-poet a desert cactus, a carrier of our anguish?

For you and others who knew them in less dangerous roles

As tenants, friends, husbands and fathers

Yours are grieving tongues and loving hearts

From which cynical questions may not be asked.

Mindful of your intense personal pains and tears

Over lost privileges, we join you in singing dirges

With which to coax them on to their now inevitable posting.

Blessed are they whose coups succeed:

They shall own the yams and wield the knives

And songs shall be erected naming them saviours

Until after the next night of the long knives …

Funso Aiyejina

Funso Aiyejina (born in 1949 in Ososo, Edo State) is a Nigerian academic, poet and playwright. He graduated from the University of Ife, now Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife where he lectured. He also lectured at the University of the West Indies, Trinidad and Tobago and at Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Missouri.