SUN DOWN

Under the old baobab tree,

Standing dead like a log in the middle
Of these few scattered huts,
I heard Nana talking to a group of new women
Entering into  womanhood

She said,

"I am old,weak and weary and so you see me to be colonial
But I am the seal of a new generation to the youth of today
I am from tomorrow carrying a message from yesterday
Because the future is like a flame
But one can walk through without burning
The future is but just a revelation
Told long ago when we were young

I have seen the unseen and heard hidden truths
Under the the cover of darkness
Right in broad day lights
The secrets of the world seem to disappear
Just because they are all open
Nothing is unknown to me yet I seek for knowledge
About everything the world has to offer
The world is but a novel
I read centuries ago and yet,
The climax never seems to have a resolution
It keeps revolving round and around

People misunderstand my old age
I have experienced
A father's smile,
A daughter's tears
A son's fears
And a mother's sacrifice
I have seen sons turn fathers
And daughters turn  mothers
I have watched day born babies turn adults
I am like the sun, I have been perpetual
But now I am aging, slowly but swiftly growing

I see an eagle hovering over me,
And that eagle is me
I am waiting for the man in the long black robes
To come knocking at my door
And my doors are always open
To the stranger called peace
Whom i have never known my entire years
Spent in this miserable world
I have passed  him many times
And I always stare as he watched back with his scorching eyes
Burning red like the flaming sands

Like I dream,I wake from my slumber
And there before me stands a white horse
And its rider holds a bow
And claims his name is death
He rides on a white bonny horse
Followed by hell
He rides freely like a prisoner
In the world between worlds
Do not panic my dearly beloved
For fear causes in action, in action causes pain
Remember I once told you that
This world will go straight to hell,I hate being right

Hell has frozen over
Because coldness has taken over the hearts of men
The end of days has began
The love for power has become
The demon for all men
Faith is a pillar of human nature
The road between life and death
So I hang on to mine like a loosened vine
With the hope that good
Will always rise like Lazarus from his grave
Destiny is not a matter of chance but choice
And only the man from his grave
Can change the order of chaos
That the world is experiencing

Life is but a series of choices
So I interrogated death
To solve the pieces of puzzle
Confronting death leads to nothing but misery
Yet I asked death mockingly
You cannot be slayed nor stopped
I can have your head but death cannot be silenced
Why?
Then he replied "every man must die"
Death cannot be slayed but trapped
When your time is up
He will surely come for you"