Contrast Poem by Haruna Garba

Horses danced
The dance of strong men
And here was colorless blood issuing
Out of the veins of sugarcane
Fine blood gashing out dew-like, so fresh
Boiling and cooling down
There was demarera waiting naked
In the harmattan of our mart

What the white serves, the brown did serve
And the old farmer's mistress flourished
Now that her husband
Had found a new mart
So she showed her even teeth in smiles

Spinning and lining
Treadle-working and shuttling
The finish was a breezier night
That succeeds a nude hot day
Brother, you might have known
When there used to be only rides
Each turning through the woods meander-like
That stalking and galloping
Steadier, our destinations we arrived

And she burned down to ashes
Mummy burned down stems and leaves-
Drying, frying and salting
There was the brown soap
Whose paean was sung in contralto
By the toothless hawkers' mouth
Original way out of your stains!

Some revolution, brothers and sisters
Has wiped away all these
So like the doomsday is
No more to be overtaken by yet another night
Growing too fast
Certain revolution has done ours' overtake

This premature weaning, weep not mother
It's her pidgin, this wet nurse
That has taken over from you

Weep not, mother
For the first hug was bagged by you
And the tummy-air still gets expelled
And does so most rapidly of course
But she weeps
Come to think of side effect
Still fishy, mother weeps