Volume 1, Issue 5-6 / May-June 2009
TORTOISE IN THE STORM.
Tortoise in the storm
From Darfur to Kivu, from the Ogaden to Kasai
From Mogadishu to Gulu, from Oromo to Bujumbura
From Tigris to Kigali.
Blistered souls moving in all directions
But in no direction
Peripatetic and in uncaring for horizon, for all is
Horizon with dark spiteful cloud
Grappling with sour memories of roaring guns,
Thundering bombs, mutilations, destructions
Tortures and massacres
Crawling on rough paths and treading through rugged terrains with cold misty nights
In isolation and quietude, uncertainty and pain
For home is no place for comparison, its distant obscene
Makes its presence more real in its unreality
As the silent night comes to console the laddered soul
But there is hope, hope for the living
The meandering river at last collapses on the bosom of the sea
The prodigal clouds return to the fold of its waves
A bright light glows at the end of the tunnel
If you and I can shelter the real people, with real needs
From the torrents of the storm
Lets care for the living, real people, real needs!
By Jumbwike Sam Aggrey.