KABEDOOPONG PIDDO DDIBE'ST

 

KABEDOOPONG

PIDDO DDIBE'ST

 

The River God

 

What an imminent god

Upon the red river blood

That follows its own course

Again and again to its source

Where every loss is a sure win

cast over the vicious wind.

 

What an immigrant god

Of Tutsi upon waves of black blood

Pouring waves of sinister yellow

Upon Victoria above below

Where broken cries float down

Collected from the dregs of scramble.

 

The invisible is invincible

Upon the Nile of the crucible

Whose tanks comfort his armpits

And we laugh uncomfortably in sealed pits

Where our screams are soaked out

By sounds of sirens, boots and puffballs.

 

What an omnispective god

Whose all-seeing eye of pain

Cast out over the yellow land of red

With automatic glaze born again

In our bitter bread of liberty read

Where we're whipped into eloquent silence.

 

What an omnipresent god

Spread wide upon Savannah plains

With his Orwellian eyeing hands

Laid long, sharp, heavily upon the common

Cast upon the bleeding river into compliance

Where all hideouts lay in surveillance.

 

What an omnibenevolent god

I shall not want

You make me drink my blood

That forms your interlacustrine lake

Where you breathe fire and breed

In the stirred game of silence.

 

What an omnificient god

Of the river that spits in the white sea

Your poetic power of excellence,

Who dares stand before your diction?

You renew your tricks each tenure

And again sleep with Victoria at noon.

 

Ah, what an omnipotent god,

That shits in the mouth of Victoria

And distant seas ripple in fogs

And the singing silence of frogs

Upon the Savannah hills heard

We're mere balls of coiled snails,

Hopping hopelessly from the pits.

© Kabedoopong Piddo Ddibe'st, Uganda  🇺🇬

 

 

 

A Night Of Fireflies

 

Say this is a city

 

Set upon some dung-hills:

 

And it underwent metamorphosis:

 

From a house to a home,

 

From a home to a village,

 

From a village to a town

 

And then to a city of dunghills.

 

 

 

And say these dung-hills

 

Harbour millions of folks,

 

And that these folks are rich beggars

 

Say governed by a tall bald-headed idiot

 

And so on.

 

 

 

Say a strange squalid wind

 

Sells sweet fabled-slogans of wealth

 

And hope in ballot box of bullets.

 

Night —

 

Blinding blinking lights

 

Of wooden-butted fire-breathing fireflies

 

With metallic nostrils

 

Laughing blood last.

 

 

 

Night —

 

A wakeful huge thoughtful

 

Restless evangelical nightclub

 

Of moonlit

 

Black tropical last

 

At Mvule Hills of Mutesa

 

Welcoming Stanley

 

To his reed-ribbed palace.

 

 

 

Night —

 

Blinking puzzling street lights

 

Green, yellow-orange, RED

 

And blood on white-wheeled black tyres!

 

Of the metallic monsters

 

Pot-bellied roads humid

 

Pearls of mud

 

New and robotic last.

 

 

 

Night —

 

Famous nude gala

 

Chilly African virtuous night

 

Open ulcer mouth lipsticks

 

Like red pencils dipped in vino;

 

Shamelessly nude private parts

 

Not for sale

 

For sale — squally sulpherous hot last.

 

 

 

Night —

 

Lukeworm uneasy

 

Malicious terribly spendid

 

Callous empty

 

Entirely long frightful sleepless

 

Strange lights

 

Of darkness loom last.

 

 

 

Night —

 

Swift arrows of darkness

 

Lustful fitful online

 

Visibly dark in imported hairs

 

Extracted from sisal fibres

 

And the bob-tailed horses

 

Sorry-looking last.

 

 

 

Night —

 

Hungry blood and moon-drenched

 

Red-handed night

 

Chloric bleak precarious lunar

 

Wet pelting dung offshore

 

Extremely sleepless soggy

 

Ragged unremitting sinister menancing

 

Imperal fool-hardy last.

 

 

 

Night —

 

Hallucinatory hysterical hope-filled

 

Slogans of approaching despair,

 

Vague movies of refugee blues

 

Picturesque of gay gala

 

Owl-hooting night

 

Attorney – general last.

 

 

 

Night —

 

Recent wholly foggy

 

Squealing arm twisting batons

 

And tear-gas armed wheeled monsters

 

Sore-eyed blustery lung-plucking

 

Everlasting scandal last.

 

 

 

Night —

 

Other demoniac ashen carnival

 

Lights of night

 

Sparkling abysmal strenuous

 

Seriously injured terror-filled

 

Life-threatening testy night

 

Sweet-soaked poison

 

That purifies the political lust

 

In moon-baked night last.

 

 

 

Night —

 

The monotonous face on the horde

 

Queerly long coal

 

Single dreamlike pumpkin bald-headed

 

Routine roll-call serial killing

 

Yellow-pumpkin excretion

 

In impressive rigged-scientific voting

 

Underwater last.

 

 

 

Night —

 

A numb contingent nuptial

 

Limpid bed-room politics,

 

Feverish revelatory skimpy shirts

 

Newly bought rat-eaten rags

 

Nigh the thigh night fire

 

With profound zoomed in breasts

 

Payable public toilets awesome last.

 

 

 

Night —

 

Upon the naughty-looking dung-hills

 

Individualistic silent strolling night

 

Suspicious grimy cynical sick night

 

Evil ritual acute diarrheal uncommunicative night

 

Hospital last.

 

 

 

Night —

 

Dark gloom-festered

 

Inevitably changing

 

Velvety sexy night

 

Harrowing

 

A never-ending post colonial night

 

Sweltering with oppression kraal last.

 

 

 

Night —

 

Lovers of wicked corrugated iron

 

Upon the dung-hills

 

The laurel wreath of flowers

 

Sparkle on the breasts of the loser

 

Embossed with embroidery

 

In the yellow-yorked city…

 

© Kabedoopong Piddo Ddibe'st, Uganda 🇺🇬

 

KABEDOOPONG

PIDDO DDIBE'ST

KABEDOOPONG PIDDO DDIBE'ST is an internationally acclaimed seasoned multi-talented Ugandan born poet, lyricist, visual and aural artist, short-story writer, dramatist, folktale-teller, folksong-singer and dancer, cultural and literary activist, editor, teacher and peasant – born and bred in Kitgum, northern Uganda. He is an Acholi by tribe. Despite his poor educational and family backgrounds/status, his poetry is so rich in metaphors of the hills, drenched in wits and insight that one is left yearning for more. Most of his writings are influenced by the kind of life he experiences or is experienced by the people around him. He writes thought-provoking sharp double-edged socio-cultural and political poems. Hundreds of his poems have appeared on different reputable publishing platforms like online magazines, blogazines, and print venues like newspapers and anthologies worldwide.