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IFEGI-OKU (WEEK 12) - "The Sun God" Part 1 of 2 |
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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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