Grandfather

As a little boy, I imagine you played  

battle with the other little boys in the 

compound – half brothers and sisters. 

Did you want to go to school when the 

English came for you? Did you run 

freely through their corridors,  

Grandfather, 

had you the faintest 

inkling that change was coming?  

Just when did you set out to see men 

killed before their prime? You are 

likened to a hero now.  

Mmamma gbara gi gburu-gburu gbakwa mmadu  

Nile gburu-gburu.  

Only stories of your heroics remain; 

perhaps this is what you would have wanted.  

Question - what did you think as you were

recovering bullets to shoot planes away, willing 

sacrifice that did not die in battle. 

That we are Obasi carries weight because you 

understood something nobody can 

verify for me, nobody will explain.  

Will you greet me in heaven?  

Xenoepist – I do not know  

you as my grandfather, you 

zenith of a man.