A country on the mat

Photo: Marija Zaric

“Liberia is Africa’s oldest republic . . .

but it became known in the 1990s for its long-running, ruinous civil war.” —BBC News

I

Here our lips sing hymns/played from organs of broken keys

Like songs sang/by hungry rebels of yesteryears

The same tunes to which mothers lost their boys to child soldiering

II

Better days ahead /better days ahead

But we’ve been dressed in black/ on this mat since 1990

Of what are we to feel nostalgic?

Of faraway screams lost to the ears of mourning siblings?

Or

Of the rebel’s command to take off our clothes and lay with our mothers before they die?

III

Yesterday our hopes slept/and didn’t wake up

They said they were buried in the pockets of political thieves

And the poor man knows not when it shall resurrect

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Eduardo de Bosco is an honoree of the Gujarat Sahitya Akademi Award in collaboration with Motivational Strips for his literary excellence. His works have appeared in Spillwords, Praxis Magazine, Eboquills, We Write Liberia, in anthologies, and elsewhere. Eduardo finds his peace in poetry, historiosophy, advocacy, education, music, and nature.