WEEK 12 – THE SUN GOD, Part 1 of 2

Bright, yellow light against a white sky
The incandescence burns her eyes
Still, young Ifegi-oku stares at the sun
Even as tears gush down her cheeks

She squats in the middle of the busy yard
Outside the mouth of her mother's hut
Three doors to the right from her father's hut
One door to the left from Fourth Wife's hut

Little One arrives and scoops her up
Brushes off the tears with gentle hands
She sits the child beneath the cool shade
Cast by the only tree in the big compound

"What kind of habit is this you're forming?
Looking at the sun as if his equal.
The Sun God punishes insolence, Ifegi-oku.
Take care less he burns your pretty eyes out!"

The older girl runs off towards the kitchen
To help her aunts prepare their meals
There, she picks up a long wooden pestle
Leaning against an old wooden mortar

Ifegi-oku watches from her spot in the shade
Little One begin to pound the boiled yams
The muscle on the older girl's arms puff out
In beat with a rhythm that turns the yam soft

The communal kitchen belches smoke
From the three wives' competing iron stoves
The smoke suddenly clears, revealing Fourth Wife
Carrying a basket filled with dried fish

From her far-off distance, Ifegi-oku sees
Wife Number Four's protruding pregnancy
The woman shuffles on, hiding behind it
To avoid the eyes of her sister co-wives

(to be continued)

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