Mwalimu Johnnie MacViban
THE SCOURGE OF 1979
All had been cased in songs of fear
Many did say so that fateful year—
‘Tis the one dream-like solution,
Never could stop that revolution.
Down went Persia’s Shahanshah
As Islam revived with cries of Allah.
Amid all that was powerfully torn
Ayatollah, the new Mohammed was born.
Uganda’s Amin, impetuous, beheld his turn come
In hypocrisy, he fled what was home.
The people in that holy confusion, prayed amen
Nwalimu, had become Caesar among men!
Libya’s desert-prophet-scamp, sensed doom
Through new sneaky waves of revolutionary boom;
Who could explain these new fears
Coupled with blood, sweat and tears?
So Somoza in Nicaragua began to quake
And the grander Sandinistas got no easy cake.
Rocking and furious, that shock again happened
Papa Macias thought he’d sharpened
Caved in, his miracle following suite
Like the curse that was mute.
No sooner had these tremors died
Napoleon Emperor Bokassa, who’d lied
Shamelessly, many an occasion,
Beheld his own majesty on vacation
Reviling where such tyrants belonged.
Bizarre stood the story so-long
As the clear writing on the wall
Prophecies of many a great fall!
But alas, history wants to be free
And freedom, assez, nous ne savons que trop!
Mwalimu Johnnie MacViban
THE COMING OF AGE
I can hear that rhythm of existence
Spread before me vast conflictual clusters;
I can hear caution bespeaking of perils
Primal values that made bragging claims.
I’ve groped along that ponderous route
Not knowing who or where or what I am.
Reflexes drawn, visions of sins against a culture,
A folklore that imposed mis-shapen values;
Such escapism from the paralysis of tradition
Seeks delight seeing in realism an opening.
Life’s business so spreads pleasant reflections
Visions like the fiction habit we idolise,
Cheers to twenty-five full candles—
Will this be to-morrow’s make –belief?