By Ebrima G. Sankareh

 

 

 

Bespectacled he walks the streets

All he sees is high fives

Emblematic of religious punctuations

When the learned quote the scriptures

 

In response he smiles

Then he laughs

And beams

And the blazing sun seems to sing on his rough dental make up

His cracked lips an invitation to vitamins

The horizon darkens and he retreats into the castle

Searching for freshness from the lake beside

Then the sun sets, a gentle setting

And the children wept

Because daddy is banished

And their creator seemed angry

 

Then the sun rises again

Bespectacled he rides the streets

Wielding a sword, simultaneously brandishing a riffle

And all we hear is kill them all

In anguish the mass retreats

Some call it “guesstu”

The poets call it nostalgia

The scientists diagnose patriotic stupidity

They turned to their angry creator for daddy’s return

The historians invoke Napoleon’s exhumation from St. Helena

And the riveting consequences it dealt the July monarchy

 

Then the sunsets casting a colorful picture on the castle

The nearby river sees it all

A scene that defies cinematography

Then the sun rises again

News breaks that the twins are out

He rushes to seal the porous frontiers

But the creator likes his twins and so

The gates of freedom are flung open

And Matt and Ndongo slipped away

The executioner is disappointed

Because his hands are tainted with blood

But Matt and Ndongo’s sacred blood he could not

Thus the Executioner’s dilemma.