By Kanute Tangwa aka K(C)anute Tangwa
when the past haunts the present
memory informs our limitations and we resign to never
flags at half mast
fluttering flattering words
for words oil compassion
in the beginning was the griot
and nyos made flesh today
remembering nyos
from its depths
gushing fetid gas
tearing down
gassing rustics
unchaining
death
desolation
dislocation
erasing
stories
lore
promise
thousands slept,
the sleep of no return
but their spirits never slept
conjuring specters in abandoned huts
leaving the foreboding verdant landscape standing witness
to stalking death
striking in disarray
unlike the final plague
young
old
livestock
all that breathes
when the past informs the future
memory crowds out conspiracies and we resign to healing