(For African Literary Pioneers of the Silent Generation)

I hear a sound: is that not the insolence of the twin gong?

They say a new music was gestated

That a new song has been written,

The air reeks of novel melodies.

In the early days I used to seek out sanctuaries or at

least kindred spaces marked with penumbral

frequencies for the rites of each homage, and

nothing was going to be enough on the garish

shores of secular life…

(Inspired by Agboreko of Wole Soyinka’s A Dance of the Forest)

Master and slave alike, of

Profound mischiefs, no ears

Still need be reminded that there

Are loftier messengers…