This week Richard Likumba’s poem DESERTED FIRE  is one of two that he read at Kitwe Little Theatre, where the Kitwe Poetry Corner poets meet.

DESERTED FIRE

By Richard Likumba

The fire that once blazed resplendent

Now lies in desolate isolation, despondent

The gaiety that once filled the village square

Has fled in search of other fanfare.

The podium that once held such great oration

Is today the subject of bygone glorious narration

Thick as a slab of butter is the silence

That pervades the fire place that lies deserted since.

On the fringes of the luminance of the embers,

Filter feeble and desolate voices that remember

The warmth that once filled the now deserted fire

Jackals and wolves now in the fire stare

With great gusto they rushed to the citadel

Hastily adorned disguises of human form

They thronged to the bounty that was warm

Their thin veneer now well worn, lies exposed bare

In congested frustration, to infrastructure the ire

Is directed, ripping what once adorned the village square

Grimacing cracks in walls jeer their machinations

To tear down the constant reminder of their failure

In the midst of this gloom a stray twig on the embers

Crackles, giving the life support throb; a reminder

Of a kindred spirit that can not be extinguished

Keep the glow for it shall soon be dawn.

All Diaspora shall come to roost

All jackals and wolves shall be tames

The fire that ebbed shall be rekindled

And it shall no longer be called

The Deserted Fire

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