A wind is ruffling the tawny pelt
Of Africa, Kikuyu, quick as flies,
Batten upon the bloodstreams of the veldt.
Corpses are scattered through a paradise.
Only the worm, colonel of carrion, cries:
“Waste no compassion on these separate dead!”
Statistics justify and scholars seize
The salients of colonial policy.
What is that to the white child hacked in bed?
To savages, expendable as Jews?
Threshed out by beaters, the long rushes break
In a white dust of ibises whose cries
Have wheeled since civilizations dawn
>From the parched river or beast-teeming plain.
The violence of beast on beast is read
As natural law, but upright man
Seeks his divinity by inflicting pain.
Delirious as these worried beasts, his wars
Dance to the tightened carcass of a drum,
While he calls courage still that native dread
Of the white peace contracted by the dead.
Again brutish necessity wipes its hands
Upon the napkin of a dirty cause, again
A waste of our compassion, as with Spain,
The gorilla wrestles with the superman.
I who am poisoned with the blood of both,
Where shall I turn, divided to the vein?
I who have cursed
The drunken officer of British rule, how choose
Between this Africa and the English tongue I love?
Betray them both, or give back what they give?
How can I face such slaughter and be cool?
How can I turn from Africa and live?
(Derek Walcott)
More Poetry from Derek Walcott:
Derek Walcott Poems based on Topics: Love, Man, Pain, Cry, English, Violence, Law & Regulation, Compassion, Betrayal- The Saddhu Of Couva (Derek Walcott Poems)
- Love After Love (Derek Walcott Poems)
- Parang (Derek Walcott Poems)
- The Schooner 'Flight' (Derek Walcott Poems)
- Koening Of The River (Derek Walcott Poems)
- A City's Death By Fire (Derek Walcott Poems)
Readers Who Like This Poem Also Like:
Based on Topics: Love Poems, Man Poems, Cry Poems, Pain Poems, Law & Regulation Poems, English Poems, Betrayal Poems, Compassion Poems, Violence PoemsBased on Keywords: batten, napkin, scholars, wrestles, colonial, ruffling, tightened, savages, threshed, veldt, gorilla
- From 'Samson Agonistes' i (John Milton Poems)
- Tales Of A Wayside Inn : Part 1. The Spanish Jew's Tale; The Legend of Rabbi Ben Levi (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Poems)
- Ch 01 Manner of Kings Story 13 (Sa di Poems)
- Ch 01 Manner Of Kings Story 06 (Sa di Poems)
- 1977: Poem For Mrs. Fannie Lou Hamer (June Jordan Poems)