Rene,
This is sheer class! Your poem, coincidentally follows the themes of greed, suffering, vanity, pain and outrageous indifference in the face of these grueling circumstances expressed in Baba`s "Puhus..." and "Lullaby for the Hungry." Your own on Dr. Mam Biram of the previous day was the big contrast though! The themes of geniality, humility, astuteness, and so on, as characteristic of your Mam Biram give succor to our disillusioned "African and Gambian hearts" . I therefore ask where have these virtues fled to? Or are we witnessing the re-incarnation of the times depicted in Robert Bolts A Man for All Season in which virtue is punished and vice rewarded?
A phrase in your poem "your painful laughter" ,reminds me of the "Vultures" by David Diop. Like you, Diop used this powerful oxymoron to portray the callousness of the colonialists who employed forced labour as a means of infrastructural development. Diop used it this way: "painful laughter on the metallic hell of the roads". Really, I have found in this poem, and your previous postings, great literary prowess.
Perhaps you and Baba could help create an online literary resource centre for use by some of us here in The Gambia. I already know we have a strong literary community on the L. Omar Joof too is one in this community.
Baba and Rene, I really enjoy reading stuff from you; kudos!
Alieu Darboe
________________________________
From: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Baba Galleh Jallow
Sent: Wednesday, October 05, 2005 5:30 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: A Poem
Beautiful poem Rene. Sad and beautiful.
Baba
________________________________
From: [log in to unmask]
Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: A Poem
Date: Wed, 5 Oct 2005 10:12:33 EDT
>You shed your tears in the dark
> bitter, impeach and shameful
> and you groan under the weight
> of your heavy burden.
>
> You bury your pain in the hot sand
> pulsating, biting and acute
> and your face crowd with the wrinkles
> of your painful laughter.
>
> Why do you close your bloodshot eyes
> to the carnage? Why do you look with
> dazed stupor at the walking skeletons?
> You turn a deaf ear to their agonized pleading.
>
> Cry, cry the smiling coast country
> you weep with dry tears in your heart
> let your anguish voice; your muffle voice
> thunder from the hilltop
> let your fire burn under the feet of their callousness;
> you muse with drench fatigue
> they tear apart the girdle around your waist
> your defecated image shred
> your face tarnished and your ego bruised
> they wallow in the unquenchable thirst
> in the sinful pride of their bloody greed.
>
> Why are you so silent? Why do
> refuse to growl and snarl your teeth?
> You strut with utter disgust
> to the banquet of their unscrupulous shame.
>
>
> Rene
>
>いいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいい
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