AT HOME WITH NATIVES

Ugochukwu Nnamdi

Biography: God Of Song;Priest Of Art

Ugochukwu Nnamdi

Tuesday 24 October 2023

At home with natives

The air is rackety and roisterous

There’s a grand festival of harvest

As we ingather maiden yam into new barns;

To regal euphony and choral feasting,

Children feet-dance on this rufescent earth;

The diviners sprinkle festooned feathers

To mediate rituals and seal festive rites,

And like the communion of bird and tree,

Merchants broker treaties with buyers afar and near

Doggedly waiting for our market days

To crown their herculean slogs alas.

At home with natives

There’s palm-sap for our merry and mirth

So we all have our fill for three

Engendering tirades and ceaseless cacophonies.

Squiffy we will head for the road

Through farmlands of fledgling corn,

Every man to his own clay-shack

With weary feet and teetering steps

Plodding bush paths with dissonant songs

Amidst the night-green of leaves,

Reverberant chirps of angry crickets

And blind fireflies to end the night.