Writings
DARFUR DARFUR DARFUR
DARFUR DARFUR DARFUR
A Letter
My dearest Darfur,
The secretary bird of falconi arms
A quill of pens behind your ears
With eyes and wisdom beyond your stare
Darfur my dearest Darfur
Swift and wise proud bird of prey
The Sudan so nice you shade the sun, down
But now for you we too must pray
You made the barest of tools ?
Your nakedness hard to swallow
Ranges distorted Bir-el-Melh volcano
Eastward mountains falling into sandy bush covered steppes
Off- springs of the belching belly of this molten hollow
AWAKE! oh Sudan, like your people never sleep
Glue thy hawk , gum from the Acacia tree
Made turgid in a stance like married clay,
Stopping turbulent torrents of tears from heavens gate
Durba of sturdy horses your galloping reigns made
A drumbeat from an Oxfarm
Some think , me thinks, this is a curse
A plot a plot some others wonder
I ponder –another Rwanda?
A mountain scored by numerous khors
Baited southern frontiers, frontiers of war
The praying mantis worried at mating on a wall
Ten thousand dying, per week, like a dose of maleria-a gathering mose
Your copper, ore – silicate and carbonate- ‘carbonhate’, now like a gory dating ?
Cotton- Tobacco –Sycamore, ‘candelabrum – euphobia’ ?
Cocumber, water melons and onions, only to grind ?
While women and children just cannot stay blind
In this swell then, in what bind do we find –even more ?
DARFUR our dearest Darfur
750,000 people, a person per even square
February two thousand and tree like a date – a dancing palm without care nor air
Darfur my dearest Darfur –where is thy fur
Your children they cry , crying till sore
This sight I see, this sight, I beg, is sore
You produce no arms - but in an arm- grip, you we find
With hands outstretched, you trust the west ?
United nations in lids of potions
But Africa, Abuja, are truly your panacea lotion
This genocide must leave your side
A secretary bird with secretaries of slate
Embalmed in waters you think is Nile
Papyrus sheets in United folds of shit
Fading ink on reed not fit for your feet
Negro and Arab we thought the same
Now we squint to find but shame
Massalit and Tunjur you aught the same
Names so sweet that once one grain
El- Fasher, Berti, Takruri, Birgirid, Beraunas, Wadai, Bagirmi and Fula west of a lake basin -Lake Chad basin
DARFUR ! my dearest Dafur - AWAKE!
Awake ! cleansed like your glory of yore
Doused in rock- salt waters in basins of rock
DARFUR of Sultans and kings - that DARFUR of history before
From camel skin so tough, come tender fur
Tomorrow will come, like days before
The secretary bird ‘Sagittarius serpentarius’
Remember ‘Victory is ours’ for all to be glorious
We miss you Dafur
Gbubemi Amas
Crosshands 2006-10-02
For Oxfarm reading, Oxfarm bookshop.Swansea
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