POEM: Takenmbeng

Takenmbeng

Grey women step on the streets

bare footed and scarcely strapping 

something just above their chest lines.

No braziers or undergarments

to shade their privacy but the single loin 

that loosely hangs above their breasts.

Their faces are smeared with ash wood

& some rare traditional crimson dust.

     

With peace leaves in between their lips,

mortars and pestles, they sit in semi-circles 

with bowed heads. 

Cursed is anyone who dares

take interest in their gifts of nature,

for they shall meet their doom 

as assigned by the ancestors of the land.

The atrocities endured by their children

are hideous and very many;

torture, killings and abductions

have brought grief to the republic.

The Takenmbeng is come

like the Chong to invoke the gods

& bring justice to the bleeding hearts

of a mutilated people here.

The elderly women pound their mortars

while the younger ladies sing the names

of those who have inflicted sorrow

on the wretched people.

It’s a frightful sight, the women talk

with the gods and ancestors and  

those who understand simply

close their eyes and disappear.

The curious frog brothers across the river 

excited with female nudity stare

at their own demise as the women 

flip their loins to expose their jerusalems.

The powerful women’s cult has spoken,

what ensues will sure awe the eyes.

Many were stung by bees &

others merely slumped to their graves.

Others came forth with swollen scrotum 

that astounded the medics.

The Takenmbeng,

any man carries his head and ill omen.

These are the tribe’s women

who’ll smear the graves

of quislings with menstrual blood

and curse ministers without portfolios.

They’re the ones who shall lead

the enemies of the people of the land

to the sacred ancestral shrine

when it will be time to cleanse the land.