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IFEGI-OKU (WEEK 20) - "At Last-The Rules of Us" Part 1 of 5 |
WEEK 20: AT LAST – THE RULES OF US, Part 1 of 5
Just as suddenly as it all began
Two days later the rain stops falling
Two hours later the sun peeks out
Two weeks later the earth dries up
The branches mend
The leaves are swept
The roosters crow
The hearth is lit
The fires roar
As each wife readies to start the day
Even Number Four hobbles about
Her cheery face does not betray
The wrenching tale of her heartache
Standing still in mid-compound
Ifegi-oku surveys the busy yard
A rolled up cloth atop her head, to
Balance the wood for her mother's hearth
A bright sunny day filled with mirth
Her sisters engage in their usual play
She stares at the life in her father's yard
And thinks it amiss for the lack of two
On that fateful night, Obi returned
Not even with the blanket she'd given him
He passed her by, his head bowed low
And shut himself in his hut since then
No one would answer her urgent query
"What of the boys who were born that day?"
Her mother had turned her back on her
Her sisters had merely shaken their heads
Her other mothers had shooed her off
Even Little One had looked askance
After giving her a pitiful glance
In despair, Ifegi-Oku turned to the earth
And asked the spider about her kin
Tapped the tortoise for the very same thing
Screamed at the eagle high in the sky
Whispered to the fish deep in the stream
Baaaaaaed to the goat chewing wheat
Looked through the hollow of standing trees
Upturned every blade and glade of grass
Searching for the answer that all forbade
Finally – she'd stood affront her father's hut
Waiting for him to come to the door
To ask a question which no one should
But being a child how could she know
Obi's blood eyes had skewered her
Framed as she was at his hut-mouth
He had been drinking for two weeks straight
Bitter palm wine that sizzled his brain
Confused her there for his dead damned ma
Her little girl's eyes piercingly black
She'd stared at him as if age-mates
Opened her mouth and committed sin
"Where are the boys?"
(to be continued)
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