Silent Voices

Bonus

4 Boy and girl Young and old Rich and poor – Must stand up erect For freedom-fight No time to waste My country men Wait not to be told by any one What should be your duty to perform To cleanse the land of corruption And cure our minds Of mental blindness Spare the gun But strengthen your voice As Osere did To awaken the minds That have been so submerged In the ocean of greed Destroying ecosystems To build ego-systems Bonus In that thick jungle full of thorns Did he his utmost Sweating day and night Panting like a hunting dog Struggling to clear the thorny thickets In obedience to his master’s command And thus bathed in praises And slept on a carpet of memos 5 Laced with flowers of commendations Which led him to think he stood to gain Baskets on baskets at harvest time But as the years rolled to a close And hoes had done their job to exhume And brought to light The products of his sweat A comrade on his left Whose tongue had the taste of acid And whose head would never bow to shit-command Nor would his fingers get soiled with grains of earth It was he that received three basketfuls of yam And a giant he-goat As Christmas bonus While our sweating man was served With yet another praise-bearing memo Which made him blink in disbelief Thinking his eyes were screened with haze But it’s true, his bonus that was Up Korup Up, up! Korup from that long, long slumber Through a tiny hole peeps the sun to warn Stirring time it is to a new, bright day From the forest comes a golden tune of hope Splendid like a song for a new born child A tune of the coming of a great event The birds of the air now sing it with ease Up, up, up, and pick up the thread Dedicated is it especially for you The gods of the land were at first crow astir Ancestral spirits out in their numbers to see ...