Bermudas
begins to breathe gently into green
into light & light green
until there are like blue
ribs upon the water. dreaming
and the ribs of water’s colour are the gills
of the first fish breathing
the first land the first eye
-lann
until there is what should not be here
on the water
white
footsteps of sand from the bottom of the ocean
become the thin road to Eleuthera
long & thin upon the water walking
until there is suddenly a black stone
a dark
veil kabala surrounding by whorls
of worship green water scallops
folding into themselves like soft
jewels the first huge fish
out of creation
w/ribs veins glimpse
of a tail & deep channels in between
where they will be mountains & ridges
& villages & ozure indigo sunsets
of lapis lazuli & white salt marking its finely corrugated edges
& stretching out into thousands of tongues. miles
of soft drifting labials. like pellucid love
on the water. this fish
from the air of so many so many untangles
& 10 thousand years later there are trees
glistening sunlight & listening rain & white streets
& houses & people walkin bout & talkn to each other on the water & across
its blue echo
& thinking of horses & houses & now soon after midday there are great ob
-long blotches like a stain
of milk & a great spider spreading itself along the pale glazing bottom of
the water. and this great planet passing upwards towards us
out this silence & drifting & blessing of the water
Bread
Slowly the white dream wrestle(s) to life
hands shaping the salt and the foreign cornfields
the cold flesh kneaded by fingers
is ready for the charcoal for the black wife
of heat the years of green sleeping in the volcano.
the dream becomes tougher. settling into its shape
like a bullfrog. suns rise and electrons
touch it. walls melt into brown. moving to crisp and crackle
breathing edge of the knife of the oven.
noise of the shop. noise of the farmer. market.
on this slab of lord. on this table w/ its oil-skin cloth
on this altar of the bone. this sacrifice
of isaac. warm dead. warm merchandise. more than worn merchandise
life
itself. the dream of the soil itself
flesh of the god you break. peace to your lips. strife
of the multitudes who howl all day for its saviour
who need its crumbs as fish. flickering through their green element
need a wide glassy wisdom
to keep their groans alive
and this loaf here. life
now halted. more and more water add-
itive. the dream less clear. the soil more distant
its prayer of table. bless of lips. more hard to reach w/ penn-
ies. the knife
that should have cut it. the hands that should have broken open its victory
of crusts at your throat. balaam watching w/ red leak
-ing eyes. the rats
finding only this young empty husk
sharp-
ening their ratchets. your wife
going out on the streets. searching searching
her feet tapping. the lights of the motor-
cars watching watching round-
ing the shape of her girdle. her back naked
rolled into night into night w/out morning
rolled into dead into dead w/out vision
rolled into life into life w/out dream
Soweto
Out of this roar of innumerable demons
hot cinema tarzan sweat
rolling moth ball eyes yellow teeth
cries of claws slashes clanks
a faint high pallor
dust
oceans rolling over the dry sand of the savanna
your houses homes warm still with the buffalo milk
bladder of elephant . tusk of his stripped tree
sing soft clinks
but the barracks
the dark dark barks of the shark
boys
the cool juice of soweto . . .
out of this dust they are coming
our eyes listen out of rhinoceros thunder
darkness of lion
the whale roar stomping in heaven
that black bellied night of hell and helleluia
when all the lights of anger flicker flicker flicker flicker
and we know somewhere there there is real fire
basuto mokhethi namibia azania shaka the zulu kenyatta the shatt
erer the maasai wandering into the everlasting shadow of jah
daughters lost daughters
bellowing against bullhorn and kleghorn
bellowing against bargwart and the searchlights of dogs
bellowing against crick and the kick in the stomach
the acrid wretch against the teeth
bellowing against malan malan malam malan
and boer and boerwreck and boertrek and truckloads of metal
helmet and fusil and the hand grenade
and acid rhodes and the diamonds of oppenheimer
the opulence of voortresshers the grass streiders . . .
suddenly like that fire the crows in johannesburg
you were there
torn. in tears. tatters
but the eyes glittered and the fist
clenching around that scream of your mother bled
into a black head of hammers
and the night fell howl
on soweto
the night fell howl
on soweto
and we who had failed to listen all. those. foot. steps
who had given you up like a torn paper package
your heroes burning in your houses
rising from your dust bowls
flaring from the sky
listen now as the news items lengthen
gathering like hawks looking upward like the
leopard plunging into the turmoil like the
constrictor
and that crouch/shot
shout out against that beast and pistol
the police who shot patrice who castrated kimathi
and clattering clattering clattering clattering
the veldts gun metals wings
rise from their last supper their hunger of bones
bomba
and the daniels sing
ukufa akuqheleki kodwa ke
kuthiwa akuhlanga lungehlanga
lalani ngenxeba nikhuzeka
and we are rowing out to sea where the woman
lived with her pipe and her smoke
shack
and her tea in the tea
pot
tankard of hopes
herbs
lamagora afele
izwe lawo
and we are rowing out to sea
where there are farms
and our farmers laid waste the land
to make honey. we are the bells of the land . . .
dumminit
dumminit
lit by lantern and lamp
damp
dumminit
ash/can
kero
sene glow
can
dle &
glare
dumminit
hitting the head of the h/anvil
huh
drumminit
?
his school/book
huh
but to learn
blood
what is blood
hah
but to bless
dream
and that hill now under the ocean
and the pages splashed with his blood
and that bullet a hero a hero herero . . .
once the germans destroyed every sperm
in your village every man who could walk
every nim growing into the noom and nam of yr man/hood
they stripped skin and made catapults skulls were their pelmets
upon the wall
and the torn feet cracked and stacked and streggaed
rubbish heap . dog howl . cenotaph
and for days there was stench over the grasslands
and for months there was silence upon the trees
cow . goat . udder . manyatta
bantustan upon the land . . .
and then it was gone like all hero hero herero
like your canoe upon the land . . .
walking back down now from the shores of kikuyu water
washing back down now from Swahili laughter
zimbabwe kinshasa limpopo
always limpopo the limper the healer
it comes down from the ruins of the north
from the lakes of the luo
from the sunlights and sunrise of the east
as antient as sheba as wise as the pharaohs
as holy as the early morning mists of ityopia
an i
man
tek long
time to
reach hey
but a
bomb
an de lim
popo drop
down
an de
dread
come
an de
wreck
age soon
done
soon
soon
Soweto
we have waited so long for this signal
this howl of your silence
this heat of herero this hero
and i beheld the great beast strangled
howling in its chains
led by the fetlocks
and the opulence useless
and the long guns shattered and silent
and we rise
mushroom
cloud
mau mau
Kilimanjaro
silvers of eagles
tears
savannas
nzingas of rivers
umklaklabulus of mountains
and the unutterable metal of the
volcano
rising
rising
rising
burning
soon
soon
soon
soweto
bongo man a come
bongo man a come
bruggadung
bongo man a come
bongo man a come
bruggadung
bruggadung
bruggadung
bruggadung
- Kamau Brathwaite
