May the traveller’s feet be light
Dawn has broken upon us like fate, and the fare-fowl that proclaims the light of this day must not forget that like the tortoise that taunts the hungry snake, both
are food to the hunter.
This day, this light breaks upon us many voices voices of stars that wail even the moon this morning wears
a mourning cloth.
And our fathers their tears beneath sagging eye-sheds sinking into their wrinkled
faces, into their departing souls
mothers must not cry mildly they burst out in tears
like the loosed sea
they wrap soft dew, gathered from the face of fine flowers, in leaves of white as comforting songs to clear
this darkness
the elders have grabbed the fare-fowl by its neck they pull each feather as they lay the seed in the womb of the earth. ‘Ofe, Ofe’ they pray the traveller’s feet
are light.
Author’s Note: “May the traveller’s feet be light’ is actually a dirge for the death of “Dawn”, a young promising child. The poem opens with lines describing the inevitability of death, both of the killer and the killed, which is a poetic rendition of a Yoruba proverb. Allusions are also made to the Yoruba proverbial sayings. The poem ends however echoing the Yoruba ritual of defeathering a fare-fowl to give the dead lighter feet to travel through the clouds. Hence, a prayer: May the traveller’s feet be light.
Ernest O. Ogunyemi writes from Nigeria. A short story writer and poet, his works have appeared in magazines and blogs such as NaijaStories, Tuck, Parousia, Acumen Issue 91, AfricanWriter, and are forthcoming in the Kalahari Review, the BPPC Poetry anthology (2018). He was a top ten finalist in the BPPC May Poetry contest, for his poem This Dream and was long listed earlier this year for the Art Prompt Writing Contest for his three-hundred-word story Without Life, which later appeared on his blog: ernestiyanda.wordpress.com. When he is not writing he is reading or dreaming or listening to Brymo or watching the beautiful cover of great books, they have a healing-feel to the mind.
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