The Ekpe Virgin

At the Ekpe festival I was torn,

Bruised by the beauty of  a sour virgin

In a sweet flash of fire in the air

I beheld that little glint in her eyes

The darkness surrounding was powerless and dead

As  I reached for the dancing silhouette

In the dark night of the great dead

Ekpe zoomed past with his priests

Dancing, whipping, jumping, stealing the day

His might was perfect, but he was blocking my way

In no further the travel of our moon

Ekpe was out, dancing again but far away

The majic was gone

The glint, the spark, the fire, the graceful one

I searched and searched but she had varnished

Left to trouble, my love on emptiness larvished

I sought to drown in liquor and tear

In pain, regretted my lady wasn’t here

So drowned further, forgetting the day

The night, Ekpe’s obstructing my way

And I on my way home to Emelu,

When a strong scream came from the thick of green

In my panic, I thought I dashed in

But the truth is, I felt myself staggering

Still I zoomed, until there she stood

Waiting amongst the flowers

My virgin, my graceful sugar tower

Closer I went, “This time no Ekpe power”,

Hoping she would forget to disappear.

Instead, she laid amongst the flowers

And the last I could remember was nothing

But drowning in the scents of the wild petals

Drenching in the subtle rays of the blurring moon

Following that was a long, undisturbed darkness,

Soothing peace, helpless weakness

The next I knew was the sharpness of the grass on my rashed arm,

The scourging sun on my nude back,

The blurred picture of an Udala tree

And my clothes soaked in urine and male slime

Neither the moon nor flowers awaited my wake

Nor the night nor my virgin for love’s sake.

I gathered my strength and tried to zoom

But it failed so I resorted in helplessness

To staggering home, again, to my dear Emelu.

Choking my throat was the great shock

I met the doom at the crowing cock-

The virgin I saw was one who died,

Long ago, lost in the dead of Ekpe’s night

Raped by the ‘gods’ until the heat of day light.

Found in her shame, a lonely corpse

Void of honour, pride and purity.

Her face had become the mask of shame

For every maiden who dared Ekpe’s name.

“But I..I thought I laid with her”,

I confessed at home to Emelu

He laughed and knew my liquor took me far

My sanity and confusion gradually returned

This time on my bed  beside Emelu

A loud scream from the thick of the green came

And I beheld that little glint in her eyes as she basked in the subtle moonlight flame.