NIGHTMARES IN JERUSALEM

By Wënnë Madyt Dengs, Bor, Jonglei state

[Extract….]

The wintry evening logged-out
when the roasting sol
had given up to darkness

I was watching the veneer of moon
in this cold gloom
I locked myself up in deep slumber
the whispering of night-walkers
melodized my night-ordeal

With my head tilted in the bed
Sleepiness stole my drive
and wandered in the mystery world
a word holding plate of horror

To shake the stillness of the night
in this tribulation,
my bed shook
it was hooked by grave wobbliness
an ancestry fancy; I was watching
stroke my in underworld

Passing across a cemetery
the ghosts were humming
it sounded like a farewell hymn

Sharply,
I heard the door-hinges screeching,

And the room was plunked open,
this was a divine shaman
who’d come to collect her spirit.

Hell,
confirmed to be as far as the heaven;
I was under this blanket
warm and deeply like a bracket

In spiritual steps
the giant-like lord

Trodden near my naked neck

Down this stream

*** *** ***

I stared at the pictures of death
one was a masculine picture
with a black scarf,
twisted around his neck
he stood on a filthy ground

I winked at him,
and he instantly remained steady.
I pushed closer,
but there seemed to have no change
I whistled and whistled
only echoes were filling the air

I ignored and snored
the pitch was nimbus
there came this beautiful image
Twas a feminine shape
I rushed to shake her hands
but she started to fade
slowly till she diminished

Sense of fear dialed my feelings
and began to shiver
One could hear the rattling of my teeth
from as far as death
my soul traveled
higher beyond my nostril

In the middle of darkness
I waded my way to meet this angel
in the spirit of peace
she stood firmly
I bent and said,
‘you’re a blessing’…
this was the token of her hospitality

I bled my heart
in truth and love
I held my breath
making my breasts to erect sharply
I cumulated heavy breath in my diaphragm
and took my time;
this was when I saw trust without antipathy

–

Nhialic,
I’ll never let go till I die,
I said while tears rolled down her cheek;

My eyes grew youngish.

He must know this,
‘the future I see
is more than our romance
it’s blessed with humanness’

Denis took a deep breath
and strode away
I remained grasping

My heart was thudding,
I felt weakness scrolling down my thighs;

I sat on this blank floor,

My throat was bitterly cut-off
by a massive lump of saliva.
I spent a fraction of minute

It’s crazy,
she pleaded.
Her voice was as fine as a pin
pumped or gathered little strength
and melted away……Gone!

Stolen,
in the morning
when the dew was dropping in peace
I picked her handbag
and quietly moved-away

My face remained kept
in the back of my mind
like a rumor
I couldn’t believe my eyes
I was gone

I sang my song:

‘For a lovely child
to a land
infested with worries
I became a worried child
for I’m now in war chance’

Snow
was the color of my teeth
what disturbs me
are my memoirs
laughing jokingly
had been a diet to me

I was gone
I, they or us
remained in the blankness
for I was gone

–

Trembling
and shivering
in this coldness

I held her breath,
staring agape;
her mouth quivering

I tagged my hands
in my armpits
to receive little heat,
as my body remained quaking

Darkness engulfed, the partial light
my days seemed to be sliding
I heard bold sound
it’s a lion roaring

My mind shuddered
like I swallowed a bee alive
my stomach constantly spinning

I repeatedly recited short prayer

Prayer:

‘For I have moved

Beyond skies,

It’s here, that I need your help

Protection, care and guidance.’

–
I moved-on
all seemed to come to an end
I stepped on this sleeping monitor-lizard
screamed, screamed and screamed!

Hey, Oliha,
my mother bashed into her room
and patted me severally across my buttocks.
I yielded and opened my yellowish eyes…
ashamed, I was!

I woke up
and dashed into the cell
my body soaring,

I shielded myself
with a human corpse
my eyes remained glowing
emitting fear, despair; in arrays

I coughed and listened
Coughed, coughed
and listened
to whole cave
silence remained in stillness

My tongue curled
and I began to stammer
my lips shivered
she became direly
and she was gone

To this wonder-world,
I was alienated to
everyone smiled clouds of smoke
carbonic spills served as the meal

The only medicine
I took was ignorance,
it pierced my underworld;
I was like God, Nothing is going on!
Clouds converged
and the room darkened.

This woman came running
holding a glass jar
with some soft blood spills
In less than one, two or three seconds,
This man ordered her to pour it on me,
I was reddish black

Both owl and bat
were bidding bye-bye
to the long night
in this mad winter morning
coldness drifting

–

Dew of thought
dropped in my heart
keeping my eyes clean

To see the next thought
scrolling down my ears
to hear positivity

I heard birds
singing melodiously
welcoming the new day
I saw myself getting filled-up
as edges of blanket
kept her warmer

Little by little
Sun rays
started to penetrate
into this cave
sort of desert heat
got filtered into the hut

My feelings got charged
but the mixed-temperatures
made my lips to get dry

I held her heart
in my palm
and started weeping

My God
‘what have I done to deserve this?’
I oozed.

In my waist
there was a white threat
made from remains
of ancestral rope

I struggled and struggled
to untie the knot
and it firmly not

This was when
she swallowed her last massive saliva
and wailed……

Ayoou-aa-yo-ou!

Behind
the room,
there’s an opening
that leaks
it gives way
to lice and mice
which are not nice

And I scored
a core and coarse
horse
to enter
in this hut
it hurts

On this day
one on one
till they intruded
I was agape
today

*** ***  ***

I was to scream
to wake the dead
as clouds were converging
in a far azure sky

With a bittersweet culmination,
there came a ram
in black and white,
a bell stiffened, making an alarm
round the neck

This was Lado
a male god
who sucks blood
and lives longer

Walking and walking
we covered lowland
climbing highland dried our throats
I was feeling exhausted; hungry and tired

“Elephant walk?”
Lado asked.
I was angrily in silence,
my eyes narrowed in silliness
I felt unaccompanied

Down the valley,
red bones were gathered
jackals and hyenas
roaming around

*** *** ***

Reaching this village

Where everyone minded-an individual business

I was right
to say
in this village
everyone acts like a chief

Even their houses
are made of innocent mud
to please their gods

A wonderland of her own
owing to her seeds the tranquility
basking in the light of truthiness

Every man
wakes up in a grass thatched hut
and pick his tool; hunters and farmers;
are her legatee

–

All rights reserved by the author ©2017

Wënnë Madyt Dengs is a poet, author and freelance journalist. He is currently based in Bor, Jonglei state, South Sudan. For advice or inquiry, he can be reached through: wennemadyt63@gmail.com

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