Godwin Inyang's Blog, page 17

4062as the chief nodded and beaming, rose to his feetand hailed all and said: ‘To our ears it’d be sweet‘if the Palm Belt folks would hint us whythey’re all here and we promise to try‘and see how we could really help them outas to our benevolence now they’ve no doubt.’The crowd applauded as the chief sat downand our chief rose and hailed all the clans in our town,then added further: ‘Our

4054The provost was bent the work be completedquickly before a new council was electedas some provosts had been noticed to sidetrackon projects started by others; it’s a black markin recent soldier ants’ politics, some sad gimmicksthey’d lavishly borrowed from human politics.Well, the provost was afraid his grand projectmight be boycotted by his successor to correct,being one of the terms, the

4049The stars were no more as at the sky I did look.Then, the wind gathered speed and shookthe leaves and rushed through branches like a brookrolling over rocks and suddenly almost tookoff the scarves tied on some women’s headslike canopies and then like fast-moving beads,the drops pelted the earth and visibly worriedthe soldier ants were and legs hurriedas some items were moved from spotsthey

4044‘I say to one and to all, shun silly jokes;leave that class thing, underrate no lasses or blokes.’Tradeit hardly took his eyes off his rivalbut the fellow all the while looked cynicaland the smile never left his eyes and nosebut the crowd applauded as a sitting poseTradeit proudly took and it was turnfor my sister who represented my mumto speak and she got up near me and spoke:‘Women, mma!’ ‘

Writing your ideas down is surrealBut editing what you wrote down is ordeal.

4036‘Sir, the crowd would love to hear your voice.’Firstsonit stood up and with proud poisehollered at the crowd: ‘White-haired ants, mma!’The oldies gladly responded, ‘Iya!’The elder hollered further: ‘Young ones, mma!’The youngsters with tinny voice responded: ‘Iya!’‘Females, mma!’ The response was soprano.‘Males, mma!’ The response was dynamo.‘Soldier ants, mma mmado!’ The roof was on fire:‘

4026

That old pact in a way covered the new carts

for all activities that plied the cobbled paths

 

and with the danger out of the way, we had a cruise

and arrived the marriage venue without a bruise.

 

Giant lanterns littered the Woodits’ place

and gigantic canopies were spread to grace

 

everyone’s head in case the sky did erupt

with rain – preparation was tight and to disrupt

 

4018

The exact words of the pact were written thus:

'On this eighth day of first week of the first

 

'moon in the tenth year after the great famine

just by the Rocky Valley, owl turned assassin

 

'and attacked rat, the driver of the first cart

owned by Smithit of Palm Belt though rat

 

'escaped but the cart fell into the valley

and its precious contents were upset abysmally.

 

'The

4011

‘Yes, my greedy
self did think of making meat

of the driver of
your cart but awesomely fit

 

‘was the fellow
who streaked off before I could hit

him with my
talons – missing him I did sit

 

‘on the spot he
stood and that left me in a daze

and he vanished
into the thicket in his race.

 

‘Yes, the cart
veered and rolled into the valley

but I hurt him
not in any part of his body.

 

4005

The cart and the
rat were rumoured had been lost

with precious
goods valued at great cost.

 

Many tales were
made out of the incident

but most folks
believed there was an accident

 

the good chap
was involved in though a few folks

did share among
themselves some lousy jokes:

 

did Mr Rat think
greedy and decided to veer

off course with
the cart and goods valued near

 

what could