TWO DOSES OF BATIBO

The poem that follows is taken from my collection of poems entitled SIGHS AND WHISPERS FROM WITHIN, published in 2006 and used in Form Two as a specification of the National Book Commission in 2006-2009.

The reason for the “the Faculty of Social and Management Sciences, when feeling thirsty for orange, I and Dr Mbake of the Department of Economics stopped by at a stall `manned` by a woman and her two daughters. There, we had a real feast of oranges. The oranges were so sweet that Dr Mbake confessed they were the juiciest he had ever tasted in his life. Another surprise for him was the fact that when we asked the vendor where the fruits had come from, she said they were from Kumba, Dr Mbake`s home town. It turned out that the saleswoman and her two daughters were from Batibo. Upon learning where they came from, I informed them that I had published a poem on the subject of Batibo. When I went to the cyber shortly afterwards, I realized that a Batibo fundraising event had been announced on CAMNETWORK. So, on a single day, I had two doses of Batibo.

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BATIBO

(For the Lord Mayor)

By Tikum Mbah Azonga

Twenty and two
Intimate brothers and sisters
Linked by mother`s golden chord
Sprung far and wide
So far, yet so near, so alike
The Lord Mayor, ear to the ground
Mixes the morning dew
Evaporates and wafts and pervades
As incense to the twenty two.

Moghamo and fitchuk are theirs
By right
Over this blue sky
On which the sun never sets
This seabed of love and forbearance
Where great and small reign
For so long
Denied its weight in gold
By the cringing little belly worm
That stalks its hard earned larvae
I s reluctantly moving the honey combs
As if to say
It is time they all stand on the roof tops
And shouted: “Alleluya!”

Copyright 2010