WEEK 3 - THE NAMING, Part 1 of 2

The Old Woman trembles on the wet mat
Feverish sweat pouring out her pores
To soak her wrinkled and wasted flesh
Pierced with the heat and stench of death

Rasping breaths force out her chest
Smashing her ribs like rain on a roof
Broken now and then with a heaving cough
She’s left in tremors that rattle her teeth

A glimmer of light moves close beside her
The lantern in the hands of a little girl
A girl of nine though she looks six
Concern and sorrow amplifying her eyes

"Do they come for you, Big Ma?" she asks
Her voice like air through a whistling reed
"Very soon, Little One, they’ll come soon.
Go and get the child for me to bless."

"The child, Big Mother, which do you mean?"
"The child whose cries shattered the night.
Go, Little One, for the Spirits are near!"
Before her next breath, the girl is gone

The Old Woman settles back down on the mat
To recover her strength from all she’d said
The effort alone had cost her dear, would she
Have strength when the child is brought?

The air in the hut is heavy and hot
The night without, calm and cool
She reaches for the jug sitting beside her
Drenches her flesh with cool fresh water

She glances up to see standing there
Obi her son and timid Little One
The man holds high the glimmer of light
Which illumines the child in Little One’s hands

Obi’s feature is a script of his heart
Contempt hides in the curves of his face
Looking at him the Old Woman snickers
A mocking sound that fills the hut

Obi speaks a curse steeped with rancor
Startling Little One and the babe in her arms
The Old Woman’s laughter grates his nerves
The hate between them is as old as God

The girl-child adds her boisterous bellow
By crying as loudly as her spirit is moved
Only then does the Old Woman cease
The laughter in her to the shadows retreats

"Bring the girl-child," with venom she hisses
"How did you know the child is girl?"
"I know many things, my son the fool.
Was it not I who put the curse on you?"

"The Gods decreed I would have a son.
Your curse this time meant nothing to me."
"The Gods are right, my son the fool.
You have a son there although a girl."

"Your madness speaks, I can see it truly.
You’d doom this child to suffer as you.
Why won’t you die and be gone from here?
Relieve this world of your abominable kind!"

(to be continued)

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