#112. Floetry by JulietKego. In Memoriam – Rivers of Riddles; Thamalakane.

November 11, 2015

Rivers of Riddles; Thamalakane.

Tonight, I seek sleep,
on a seabed of water lilies.
No shadows of thoughts,
overflowing my banks.
The river spits out saliva
filled with sea-shells.

They do not hold sunny secrets
or sweet melodies
of lullabies, from the universe.
Inside the shells, are trapped
un-cried sounds of sleepless souls,
belonging to bodies,
this racy river of riddles seduced,
with her wavy curves and siren sighs.

And they never came back.
We waited and waited,
and were weighed down,
drowning with the heaviness
of a boulder’s deep knowing,
that they shall never come back.
How do I mourn friends
I never got a chance to know?
Tonight, I must let them go.
Sleep. Rest well. Live again.
Reborn, into waiting arms
of ancestors come.

Tonight, I dance naked,
laced only in a lingerie of tears
on the banks of the rivers of riddles,
near the deltas of Okavango.
I am sending their spirits home
inside the sea-shells,
where their cries crawl into my thoughts.
And become runaway songs
from my throat
to my tongues to my lips.
Soon, the seeds of the rhythms
birth new plants of prayers,
flowering into poems
and lullabies of love, rocking me
into weightlessness; I float.
Released. Me and them, both.

Tonight, I’m sleeping,
on a seabed of  water lilies,
on my skin, flecks
of moon-dust and stardust.
All reflected in the rippling,
sated shimmers of the rivers
of riddles; Thamalakane.
And tonight, the shy river
whispers her secrets to me,
as soothing sounds in a sea shell.
She hums with a soft, soft sigh:
“I let them drown, I let them die,
So that tonight, one of eternal nights,
you must remember to let in light,
let in your light, Maun
to let them breathe
Let them live…
Let them grow,
let them flow
with freedom,
as songs, as art, as poems…”

(C) Juliet ‘Kego Ume-Onyido