WE HAVE NOT SPOKEN OF THE WAY BACK HOME

in #poetry5 years ago

My friends, we have used talk
To bring the night down to us.
We have slacked our thirst
On news and gossip with
The exchange of spittle filled words
And we have spent laughter
With the hands of a farmer
In the season of harvest.
What we have not spoken of
Is the road back to our homes.

We are drunk with the sight
Of a moon as soft as the yolk
Of the eggs we had meditated upon.
Her tender light begs us to linger
But our wives tend our beds
In warm wait
And the bats have began to rattle
The evening eaves.
There is still wine in the calabash
And kolanut in the leaves
But our teeth are numb with chewing
And our eyes itch with stupor.

Let us hold hands like maidens
Giggling to the stream,
Let us not stagger lest we call
Curious windows to our plight.
Let us gird ourselves with careful steps
And climb the puddles on which
Sits the footpath home.
Obehi serves a good table
And his wife knows her spices.
We have supped and shared wine
But what we have not spoken of
Is the road back to our homes.

The king's gong hollers
In the flickering distance
As the sky drinks flickering flames.
The village burns, my friends!
The village burns!
Step quickly lest we stumble and fall.
Obehi serves a good table
And his wife knows her spices.
Do you see the meaning in the song?
The palmwine settles in our stomachs
Like sour milk
And the meat sticks to out teeth
Like old memories.
Our wives and children!
Our goats and harvests!
We shared wine and words,
Platters of food and spent
Laughter like the hands of a farmer
In the season of harvest
But we never did speak of the road
Back to our homes.


photo-1546979348-7a211780ad7f.jpeg
Unsplash: Alexis Antonio


I was chatting with a friend and she said the words in the first two lines of the first stanza. They sounded so unique when I heard it and immediately I knew it would make sense in a verse. So I wrote something. I would love to read your thoughts.


©warpedpoetic, 2019.

Sort:  

I liked the imagery - which seems to suggest more than is said.

Am left with something I cannot decide on. Did you relly intend:

slacked our thirst

or was it meant to be 'slaked'?

Still, it is so nice to find a work of this kind, so as to ring little bells of warning, that I must take better notice of what I find here on Steemit.

Hi @warpedpoetic!

Your post was upvoted by @steem-ua, new Steem dApp, using UserAuthority for algorithmic post curation!
Your UA account score is currently 3.949 which ranks you at #3720 across all Steem accounts.
Your rank has improved 4 places in the last three days (old rank 3724).

In our last Algorithmic Curation Round, consisting of 385 contributions, your post is ranked at #225.

Evaluation of your UA score:
  • You're on the right track, try to gather more followers.
  • The readers appreciate your great work!
  • Try to improve on your user engagement! The more interesting interaction in the comments of your post, the better!

Feel free to join our @steem-ua Discord server

Coin Marketplace

STEEM 0.36
TRX 0.12
JST 0.039
BTC 69965.85
ETH 3540.49
USDT 1.00
SBD 4.71