KABEDOOPONG PIDDO DDIBE'ST

 

 

The Lost Spear

 

My uprooted pumpkin roots say

The hunter has seen

The water gourd with his eyes now,

I am the lost Spear

Of Labongo

I am the songs of the Spear

And the Bead

And the cold gourd of water,

I am the missed water of your thirsty gourd;

I am the flying rivers of smoke:

The fire keeps pushing me higher,

And I keep leaving the ashes

Of the firewood you poke!

My blade is sharpened

On the stones of nights

My father is Olum,

The Great Chief

Of Silence:

My clan feeds on fire

And the elders

Tell me the tales

Of days of the yore

At the fireplace

While drinking Kwete;

And I — Labongo —

I am the son of fire

In my father's compound,

I sit cross-legged

Listening to the tales of men...

I am a barbed arrow

Of a skillful hunter;

Sometimes I get stuck

In the dung of the elephant

Gipir speared;

The elephant’s dung is full

Of whole seeds

Of fruitful thorns of words

I do not speak;

I do not chew leaves

Of metaphors

That I am — I spit sweltering sunrise.

© Kabedoopong Piddo Ddibe'st

 

KABEDOOPONG PIDDO DDIBE'ST

 

KABEDOOPONG PIDDO DDIBE'ST is an internationally acclaimed published Ugandan poet, an online magazine publisher, Editor-in-Chief and founder of The Blaque Mirror, playwright, novelist, aural and visual artist, an English Language/Literature teacher and a student lawyer.