Letters to Marion (And the Coming Generations)

The Beginning

52 Letters to Marion (And the Coming Generations) The Beginning I was born to be a student grave To climb the greasy mountains brave Thrust myself in the trembling noise Of Nature’s wholesome voice. For five long years, I went away from home To Seat of Wisdom College, sacred intellect dome I bade goodbye to young and old To a land of the sage no one ever told Cronies in tears shook faint my hand And wished me good luck over the land My box being light, I walked but fast At four by day was I in school at last Nineteen Seventy one, liberation year From dad and mum like the youthful seer Now all my rank were presented But I felt so isolated and resented Nor name nor person did I know nor seek With smiles like such on a mermaids’ cheek And walked so freely to dorm Reverend As though Sept would never have an end But night came with horror on its throne And all in the Ref were flung as thrown With appetizing taste and scraping plate A new-won friend was father of his fate We told ourselves tales of blissful kind Most from Imagination, sacred priest of mankind Each would tell his experience through How the devil led him to the grave in a bough And bade him be a footballer all his life How he watched fights in films ‘tween man and wife Of guerillas, of monsters, wizards eating men Frightened thus we sought our beds to pray amen How I slept, nay, dreamed beyond dream And the face of things in the earth was dim Till the sun with courage shamed the moon And all my dreams were buried at noon 53 John Nkemngong Nkengasong Pleasures continue with great delight And three days ere our signors come with spite Three days we were told our merriment lasts For signors came with torments and bullying blasts Being small, some thought I came for escort But eyes that swallowed me could not retort For, often as I walked around and made them know Made them know I was a scholar. Some said ‘‘no’’ Hands to mouth, others chilled with awe and wonder Exclaiming, ‘‘The midget, true he’s a scholar!’’ Inlanguagemetaphoricaltheynamedme‘‘Government Height’’, loved me well like nurses well-meant As days passed fast I was like a suckling baby to them all. Could I to them forever cling When every minute’s tick sent my nurses home Forsaking me alone in the intellect-dome I sang farewell in song and sorrow scathed like the shaft of the poisoned arrow The year ended, change and stuff did come And ‘‘Semi-Fox’’ so they called, I had become With torments, tortures greatly much reduced Vantage fed me more than preps, as I induced Risks came much more when I reached Form Three And I was poised like Eve for the Knowledge Tree Many tricks played on me, O, I was beguiled And man I was to fight those who me belied Success brought the third year home, I was proud Upanddowntheholidaytownworeaclam’rousshroud Of students talking wondrously of school life Many I knew, always loved to blow their fife But I held with me my ‘‘Abott’’ very much conceited Up and down the clam’rous town as though initiated Doctor in some Aristotle or hackneyed-teeth Plato Or some wild and uncanny memento Fate wished me luck, sometimes ill luck And my fortune was stowed in stock and lock For when devil thunder came with wily smiles I saw my life in patio of distant miles And to fourth year I climbed on a greasy pole Like a semi-finalist in a football pool 54 Letters to Marion (And the Coming Generations) Counting but days to the crest of life That is to say, to reach form five But thunder threatened devastation I welcomed it with woe and station The ever-guiding Monarch calm and canny And whose fortune was so bright and sunny In whose superintendence I threw my lot in full And climbed the heights, not like the French fool Who in a thousand years climbed the Alps And in one woeful day fell in the fatal laps Of indignant mother Earth. I climbed the heights I climbed the heights in my intellectual fights Till I saw the final days drifting me home I knew I had done all to...