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kaanibaa
United Kingdom
1169 Posts |
 Posted - 10 May 2009 : 14:18:28
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Out in our village backyard
Stands a huge silk cotton tree
You can see it from every where for miles away
Looming large on the horizontal plane
Marking it's place in the local set up and scenery
This tree was there from time immemorial
Shading pigs goats and dogs
Which mess around it's huge trunk
A hollow at the base serves as a holy shrine
There barren women go to pray
And get children born thereafter
This is the Kanyelleng shrine
Which they offer thanks to on given days
Accompanied by drumming ,dancing and feisty meals
Like the big silk cotton tree
We have old pa Agneel Baajie
The local blacksmith
Whose smithery sits at the bantaba
He walks on one leg aided by a crotch
Walking faster than any able-bodied youth
To sort out his needs
We the kids fear his call
As we play hide and seek nearby
For that means a stint at the bellowing farrows
Under his grass hut for the day
Refusing to heed that call
Is a sentence to a blistering flog
From his callous hands
He too was there as long as I can remember
Mending tools or making new ones
For the farmer folks
One day the huge tree fell
After a mighty storm over night
There was a rush to see what happened
There news came of the demise of Agneel Baajie
The big tree and Agneel shared that date
Leaving a void
The smiths hut became derelict
The space that the tree occupied became void
We grew up as they ceased to be
All that remained was the memory
Of Agneel and the big tree
A big loss to us all
No more flogging beats
No more tool repairs
No more shrine offerings
No playground for pigs dogs and goats
As we must have new babies
The Kanyelleng got another shrine
Found in a grove by the river
Where a white crocodile swims
Coming out only when it is propitious
They called that place Agneelaw Baajie
Still going there
To pray for the barren to bear babies
Who shall grow to take our places tomorrow
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Edited by - kaanibaa on 10 May 2009 14:51:29 |
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