Requiem For A Mother-In-Law Gone Too Soon – Part 6

My brother,
listen not
to these hoaxy
theorists and
traders of
machismo
devoid of
sober reflection
on concrete
reality…
it is all right
for the first-born son
to cry tears
of love
for a mother
forever gone –
if you were
to ask
of me,
my dear brother,
I would tell you
the raw truth,
which is as
painful as
when crushed
ripe-peppers
are rubbed into
a running sore,
the trauma
of primal screams
of birth,
the volcanic push
into this space
of Earth,
the primal screams
of birth
and its
mirror-image
of death…
there is
absolutely
nothing pleasant
or beauteous
about death,
Mister Stiff,
the ugly
necessity
of a life
lived
to the fullest
extent
of the outstretched
frog
at death –
which is plain
ugly and
painful and
paradoxically
peaceful
after the fact,
once the truth
has sunk in
like lead
under
water…
ugly death
which is also
a necessary end
of a life
lived
to the fullest
in dignity
and love…
primal screams
and the dutiful tears
of the first-born son,
the most beloved
and cherished…
belated regret
over which
absolutely nothing
can be done,
a death twice
foretold
and yet
calmly foreborne
out of its
inevitability;
that which cannot
be prevented save
taunted
by the celebration
of a life
lived
to the fullest
and fullness
of time
as a bucket
brimful
of water,
concentric rings
and gyrations
as when a pebble
is plopped,
the onion rings…
Maafio,
the sober
and painful truth
is beginning
to sink deep
into my
taste-buds,
like
cayenne pepper
undiluted
by crushed
tomatoes
at noon –
floodwaters
of snot-soaked
mustache…
Maafio,
finally,
truth
has delivered
its cold package
of regret,
its prime content
of shock
denial
and grief;
it is the beginning
of another trip
to where
it all
began…
a journey
back into
the womb
of Earth –
Maafio,
soon,
you shall merge
and dissolve
into a clod
of earth,
my earth,
our earth,
the germ
and essence
of our
being…
11/1/18

Author: Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr.

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