Excuse me father if I'm disappointed for what you expect meExcuse me father
If you cannot slaughter other tribesmen not to say prayers in the morning if I turn my backon Some of your advice
Because the father
Although your blood runs in my veins, although Bedouin have too though I've slept under huts vacated
Looking forward to the Moon
And lifting my hand to God
Envy has been
Time has many strange leaves unfolded
And spread them between us and
I have uprooted time
Time has planted me to garden
So don't use prayer,
And sorry to dig the bones out (bones buried here)
Oops
If you have forgotten that you are buried here.
In: poems of black Africa. edited by Wole Soyinka. Oxford, 1989, pp.335-336.
