Letters to Marion (And the Coming Generations)

Essingan Dancers

31 John Nkemngong Nkengasong Essingan Dancers Infernalrhythms throbs of bleeding drums beat in our ears and, ruptured in a dance of terror they shattered our dreams like smashed skulls on the tarmac... these gorgons masked in Mbeh Lekang they passed us, one by one in our mournful dusk chorusing: Lie, Commeniy, lie Till the devil Obeys your call first was Terror, butcher and strangler thousand corpses on a single face each face crying its death, he edged on swinging hatchet and matchet and we died in horror our nerves stifled like the fibres of a dead coconut as he sang the chorus: Lie, Commeniy, lie Till the devil Obeys your call then came Pride a modern man, modern thief he danced, no devil had his match this Essingan sorcerer he wrapped our hopes in vanity and swore by the axe and a crown of thorns no one’ll pinch his crumb while he lived he followed the chorus singing 32 Letters to Marion (And the Coming Generations) Lie, Commeniy, lie Till the devil Obeys your call now a noble, Liar advanced an awful mask, that unhorned fiend the fanged adder cached in the green swearing truth biting the keen sword’s edge danced in the night and swore by day no soul could see his feet and I heard his voice: I, Commeniy, lie And the devil Obeys my command. Last came the Essingan master mask he wore the head of an ancient ram if you could neither see nor hear you could smell ulululations if not, his lustful scent of a ram frenzied in the rhythm of the dance fretting like a beheaded ram that set all a-giggling in the village market square he halted the rhythm at its peak to say: Lie, Commeniy, lie But I fear You are devil and no liar. ...