WESTWARD SHADOWS: DEATH OF A SPIRIT

WESTWARD SHADOWS: DEATH OF A SPIRIT


Its just a few days now
Before I bid thee farewell
Don’t want to get stuck in traffic
That I may find a space there
Weep for me now—weep
Then after tomorrow let your tears cease
Your best and your worst do
‘cos its just a few days now
For me don’t lay wreaths
Or bake bounties of wheat
These sad sad memories keep
Memories of a death keep not
For life’s better than death
But death; death’s more pungent
Like the can of urine
Under late Grandma’s bed

Its just days now
Since I came on cue
Some say acted well too
You never clapped or did you?
You only cheered and jeered
When I put the wrong foot right
You were right there
You were the audience
Never helping me unto solid ground
No! Don’t keep me in thoughts
Or in sullen depressing memories
Memories are also pungent
Like deaths; like memories

Its just days now
Before change comes
You will let Nkemdinma weep
But never let Nwoye, never
In these days they’ll talk
But I won’t be here anymore
This demise I foresaw—plotted
That I will be free to soar
A driver of his destiny
And purveyor of this truth
The truth this spirit concealed

Its days now—nay seconds
You will hold you blink and witness
This moment of transfiguration
For a spirit gasping for new life
Seeking to transcend beyond a future uncertain
You won’t shut your eyes
To the fading era of tarnishing ills
Keep your expensive wreaths
The dew will ruin them
Keep your songs; your wails
Sing for me no requiem
For I prefer the birds’
Keep them for those to come
Me, I will come at dawn
Sparkling and refreshingly new
Like the birds song and the dew

Its just seconds now
Forgive me if I mourn this spirit
It’s to set afloat an inner man
That I may gain the assurance
Of being right there
That place of the long westward shadows
Right there at the centre
Basking in the radiance of the Daystar

©Endi
Port Harcourt, Nigeria
August 2006