The Warrior's Tear Poem by Selorm Agbleze

This fire reminds me of another
This fire that burns the filth
It reminds me of that bonfire
That drove darkness from the old man’s face
He was one of his kind
From the years past
The years that are sang in festival praise songs

On this moonlit night
He told of the days of bravery
When the cry of women commenced their journey
Of drums crowned with skulls
Whose beats faded away carrying with them their fears and cares
And of sleepless nights whose hunts were for flesh of his kind
He told of fearless hearts that tore through the blunt thickness of dark forests
And of brave men that sneaked through the sharp blades of savannah grasses

He told of homes of foes
Abandoned as death beckoned
Of battle fields
Of sweat, sound, blood and dust
He whispered of those dark moments
When the enemy spear in their flesh found depth
And the thought of death
Crept so near
But gone with the beats was their fear
He whispered of the curses of dying women
And the unheeded cries of lost children
He counted the bundles of marching slaves
The whitened faces of sacrifice heads
And fattened heads of newly acquired herds
He told of singing women
And heads that returned home for befitting burial
A warrior’s head home is a warrior safe home
He told of the ranks that rose on the shoulders of strong arms
Trophies of jawbones
And necklaces decorated with the teeth of mighty men
Then he told of the strange silence in their hearts
Although they sung the lines of victory

In silence
A scarce smile rippled across his face
Uniting wrinkles that had clouded out his youth
He burst into songs that sang the dooms of tribes
Of heads that will roll
And of flames that will rise
As he ended he shed a tear
Strangely so
But he shed a tear
His songs are still sang in the village this day
By the fearless hearts that pierce through the earth with hoes and ploughs
And the valiant men the pull the fishing nets
They are sang in the chorus of communal labor
Around the fire that burns the filth
This fire reminds me of the warriors tear