An Unearthly moan out of Bethlehem
This sound of pain is watery
It is ghostlike, otherworldly, my innards quake and tremble
Rachel cries for her children – lost
She cannot be consoled
She has torn apart her garments
She has bared her breasts to the cold air
Rachel has refused our ‘sorries’ and our ‘don’t worries’
Ashes and dust she has piled on her head
She staggers like a drunkard
And her eyes dart about like a thief caught in Alaba
The sounds that escape her clenched teeth
Break our cold hearts into a thousand fragments
Cold sweats stand on our foreheads
The river from her eyes is ceaseless
We wrestle her to the ground
It takes five of us able bodied men
To hold her down
She flails her legs at our balls, we grimly hold on
We have lost so much this night
We cannot lose another
Slowly her breathing returns to normal
The rhythm broken by the occasional sob
But she is broken, spoilt, like a child’s toy
Her beautiful face is the colour of paper
Her silky hair is dishevelled
No words are allowed here anymore
We all stand, unconsciously blocking the doorway
It is an abomination, this thing
By the strange light in her eyes
We know now, madness is a certainty
For how can her mind bear this?
How could our ears hear this?
How can our eyes see this?
Oh Rachel!
Oh Rachel!
Written by: Chikatito Jones
Edited by: Kukogho Iruesiri Samson
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