I walked home on one leg
A result of illicit elopement
That which drove my mind wild
As a wicked wizard roaming people’s yards
Like a lizard on heat creepeth,
Like a dying fly on cow milk.
I ran, as a little she-goat looking for rams
As mad dogs to wild cats.
In the promise of love,
In the promise of a future
Better!
In the promise of children
In the promise of provision
In the promises endless,
Endlessness of cultivated hope.
But how could my eyes have clogged
Of the cause of false infatuation
Of coins and chicken change
Change from the young man boss’ mines.
And then their gold ran dry
My boy mines gold no more but rather
Mines my aching heart and flesh
Of bent bark in the angry sun
Until I should feed his village clouts
Out of my drying blood and flesh.
Only recently, I said enough is enough
And parked to go home
I would have walked on my limbs
And crawled to repent of the old man’s glory
But a plate fell on my knees
The village’s witch doctor suggested, my rotting limb,
be cut off—it is a bad omen
But home I still went
On one leg, there—
I would heal and start afresh
With traditional blessings!
YOU CAN ALSO READ: POETRY: Pieces of her
