A sonnet on Ogun, the Yoruba Orisha of iron, war, and the clearing of paths.
He strikes the anvil with a heavy hand,
To forge the blade and shape the silver plow.
A king of metal in a forest land,
With ancient sweat upon his darkened brow.
He clears the thicket where the shadows hide,
To carve a road where only dust had been.
A warrior’s heart with nothing left to hide,
The master of the furnace and the machine.
The scent of oil and the taste of wine,
Are offered to the spirit of the flame.
A strength that is both human and divine,
That gives the jagged world a sturdy name.
Though blood may stain the edge of every tool,
The iron spirit is the city’s rule.
The Queen of the Sky
A sonnet on Nomkhubulwane, the Zulu goddess of the rainbow and the harvest.
She drapes the mist across the emerald hill,
A rainbow woven in her flowing hair.
The restless winds of morning start to still,
To breathe the sweetness of the mountain air.
She brings the rain to thirsty fields of maize,
A cooling blessing for the dusty earth.
To end the long and heavy summer blaze,
And give the sleeping seeds a sudden birth.
The cattle low beneath her gentle hand,
As golden light begins to touch the grass.
A mother’s shadow on the ancient land,
That watches every season slowly pass.
Though she is hidden in the clouds above,
The earth is green with her eternal love.
The Elephant’s Shadow
A sonnet on the Grootslang, the primeval creature of South African legend, half-elephant and half-serpent.
Within the Richtersveld, where diamonds glow,
A creature dwells within a lightless cave.
A beast that ancient spirits used to know,
Before the world was taught how to behave.
With ivory tusks and coils of heavy scale,
It guards the treasures of the hidden deep.
A nightmare told in every desert tale,
While all the weary miners start to sleep.
The strength of giants and the serpent’s guile,
Are fused into a single, hungry frame.
A monster from the morning of the Nile,
With no companion but its lonely name.
Beware the pit where golden shadows lie,
Lest you be seen by that ancient, amber eye.
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