“The Mystic Drum” - Gabriel Okara

 “The Mystic Drum”

The mystic drum in my inside

 

and fishes danced in the rivers

and men and women danced on land

to the rhythm of my drum

 

But standing behind a tree

with leaves around her waist

she only smiled with a shake of her head.

 

Still my drum continued to beat,

rippling the air with quickened

tempo compelling the quick

and the dead to dance and sing

with their shadows –

 

But standing behind a tree

with leaves around her waist

she only smiled with a shake of her head.

 

Then the drum beat with the rhythm

of the things of the ground

and invoked the eye of the sky

the sun and the moon and the river gods -

and the trees bean to dance,

the fishes turned men

and men turned fishes

and things stopped to grow –

 

But standing behind a tree

with leaves around her waist

she only smiled with a shake of her head.

 

And then the mystic drum

in my inside stopped to beat -

and men became men,

fishes became fishes

and trees, the sun and the moon

found their places, and the dead

went to the ground and things began to grow.

 

And behind the tree she stood

with roots sprouting from her

feet and leaves growing on her head

and smoke issuing from her nose

and her lips parted in her smile

turned cavity belching darkness.

 

Then, then I packed my mystic drum

and turned away; never to beat so loud any more

- Gabriel Okara

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© Source: https://www.kngac.ac.in/elearning-portal/ec/admin/contents/3_18KP2E08_2021013001191026.pdf