Zócalo Public SquareI Shamed the Valleys That Wanted To Eat Me – Zócalo Public Square https://legacy.zocalopublicsquare.org Ideas Journalism With a Head and a Heart Mon, 21 Oct 2024 07:01:54 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 I Shamed the Valleys That Wanted To Eat Me https://legacy.zocalopublicsquare.org/2023/05/12/chinua-ezenwa-ohaeto/chronicles/poetry/ https://legacy.zocalopublicsquare.org/2023/05/12/chinua-ezenwa-ohaeto/chronicles/poetry/#respond Fri, 12 May 2023 07:01:54 +0000 by Chinua Ezenwa-Ohaeto https://legacy.zocalopublicsquare.org/?p=135692 I don’t want to wait till the moment of my dying
to realize what I have ignored all my life.
I want you to climb me. Climb me because I want you
to know the wounds on my body are not mere conjectures.
I don’t want to drink to my imagination before
understanding the dialects of living.
I don’t want to be stationed at the interpretative bridge to
realize that I have for a long time shot my shadow in the head.
I want the animals I feed awake, let them open
their eyes and mouths and experience with me;
let them experience with me these sins and science
and glories and goodness.
Every day is a new tale at dawn’s dusk.
The dawn’s dusk is a new tale to every day.
Whichever it is, I want my bed full.
I want my tea full. …

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]]> I don’t want to wait till the moment of my dying
to realize what I have ignored all my life.
I want you to climb me. Climb me because I want you
to know the wounds on my body are not mere conjectures.
I don’t want to drink to my imagination before
understanding the dialects of living.
I don’t want to be stationed at the interpretative bridge to
realize that I have for a long time shot my shadow in the head.
I want the animals I feed awake, let them open
their eyes and mouths and experience with me;
let them experience with me these sins and science
and glories and goodness.
Every day is a new tale at dawn’s dusk.
The dawn’s dusk is a new tale to every day.
Whichever it is, I want my bed full.
I want my tea full. I want my desire full and satisfied.
and when I grow wrinkles, those creases and threads of fine markers,
I want them to be terrified of what I have done with my body;
I want them to recognize that I shamed the valleys that wanted to eat me.

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