Ibiang Ayei
@ayeiibiang080407
1 year ago

CREMATED: The Heart, The Torch, The Urn

So Trust sat a bloody mess, his jagged body
looped in a tyre
Knife cuts and a bruised head, a doused flesh
fitly meet for the fire

Tales of the lynched,
he had a crowd for the listen
But who listens to the mute
when the deaf starts a beating?


Ripped to shreds,
every fibre of his torn clothes soaked up
gasoline
And with the flame flickering before his
teary eyes,
he took one last look at me


I'd never seen both despair and anguish
captured at once;
the horror in his eyes,
The disbelief of friends agitating he burns;
the ones
that brought the can so he dies

And with life slowed down three times,
he could
only but savour the moment,
taking in every blow, every chatter, every admirer
- the one whom he loved watching,
holding up a signal for the henchman to toss in
the lighter


So I watched you go up in flames like an
explosion:
Your head, a wig of fire
Your shriek, the most agonizing,
I'll never forget how it felt seeing you bound
in those wires:

The futility of your struggle
The jeer in the crowd
Your body as stubble
The smoke of your rising ascending the clouds


Yes for eight gruesome minutes I watched you
burn in the flame;
watched you light up the square until only cinders
and ashes remained

Then came dusk with your fading,
your charred bones crackling like twigs
Its embers bright in the darkness
your essence fizzling out on the streets



***






Written by: Ibiang, Ayei Okoi
Tuesday, 15th March, 2022.
5:07pm
#Aï
#Nirclestories
#Poetry