Wading the Tide

The Abyss Of The Past

38 Nostalgia This Maze It was day and then night came, there was light but it was flooded by darkness; that is what I saw there is only one route to this maze - birth and only one way out, death. What a maze, bumping into one another, insulting the one praising the other, sycophants; present in this maze: distrust, deceit; a total contravention of the ten commandments - Pandemonium! Somewhere at the top corner of out maze I saw a small hole, through which a thin ray of light seeped in. A few were beginning to find their way but others shaded their eyes with their hands and staggered along. The Abyss Of The Past My eyes turn within, they span the years long gone the pleasures float freshly to my heart, the sorrows surface from the deep, my eyes turn into a pool, the joys of pleasure and sorrow. Life is such a span, of pain and pleasure, vice and virtue, decorating the tide of time and events. We forget them, but some day a simple sound will brighten the dark alley of the past, your 39 Wading the Tide heart will be heavy, heavy like mine now, with a sigh I returned, yes returned to the present. Dilemma Children Native soil, woe to you. Across thy cool dark bowels I crawled as a child, playing with the undulations and contents of your entrails. I was happy as a child, age saved me from recognizing the maliciousness of mankind, his hypocrisy. Whose people were we then? Then came scalded-flesh to call us his, to civilize us he said. Marauder! Today, that gentle rhythm, of early morning rising, the heating of last night’s fufu and bitter-leaf, eating, going to farm, returning at dusk, heating water, bathing, roasting maize and boiling groundnuts; the telling of tales for them to get done, eating and going to bed, is all gone. The calmness of life is gone, gone is the talking drum, gone are those happy voices in the African twilight as men and women boys and girls danced to the rhythm of«barbaric» instruments, ha! ha! the one teaching, the other learning the secrets of mother Africa. In place of calmness has come deadly sounds. Even our darkness is no longer for dancing and rejoicing but a den for malicious events: killing, stealing, trademarks ...