Ten years of artillery guns
flexed in
cannoned bazookas
pound the soul,
as reeking wounds, inflict
a mind torn to
calvary shreds:
the filibuster
at the senate for initiations
I was escorted out of the
ihu-iyi* baptism by
okonko**
in a cocooned darkness.
In the thundering of drums
the mask now appears
hoarse with singing
crawling in the freedom of torture
naked by the ekpe fires
in the thundering of drums
sacrificial white-egg
speaks with chalk in
goblet of white palm wine
and dance of joy,
a touch of the generalissimo
from the abyss
announces the induction of
another mask
Christ Nwamuo · 1982
EDITOR’S NOTE
Originally published in West Africa on 6 September 1982, p. 30. This diplomatic transcription preserves the wording and lineation verified against the archived page.