THE CALL, AGAIN |14 January 2017
From somewhere,
In the midst of nowhere,
The call came while he was wide awake...
The call, calling him home!
This time more insistent sending with it visions,
In before and now mode, of what was and what has
As remnants of that past, been left as a lesson:
Mountaintops, that now are eroded, scarred or fused,
Left above sea level as silent monuments
For those whose eyes can see…
Islands that beckon from
Where rising sun focused upon the Golden Disc
Centred on the altar of the House of Union
Which, dazzled from atop the Mountain of the Moons
Where what's left of the stairs to godhood, mock the sky…
Where waves chant haunting hymns as over lost graves and
Out of mind treasures of blue-blood French pirates lap...
Where the old fishermen worship the sea "bon homme"!
The call was a scolding...
He must heed the call of the takamaka trees
That still hums bars of praise to the short heavy rains!
To Bel Lieu,
Still sacred, he must go to repose!
There to dream when the stars play upon its fast flow…
To dance to the "moutia" when the moon abandons
The night to the old gods!
To Sainte Anne...!
Once site of the Temple of Wisdom
Which, to shield it until the New Dawn, was rendered
Unseen to all save for to those of that bloodline...
Where, with doom approaching, converged the wise dolphins
To imbibe from High Priests, who feared entrusting
To humans, the secrets from the dawn of the earth!
Vallée de Mai!
It's from there,
The fragments of deep past memory established,
The voice keeps calling out!
Thus to what’s left of once a vast vale, he must haste!
To the unknown cave there behind the waterfalls
Where, in a time capsule now due to click open,
Are seeds of the race of the Tree of All Answers!
To La Digue,
Last, he'll go...
There, to view the final outcome of the thoughtless
Misuse of power by the proud sons of the gods!
Overwhelmed by the flood of recall,
Brought on by the vision,
Through the depth of silence
He sent out his response to the call...
“Remnant of Paradise you summon not in vain!
“For my time now draws near…
“Wait for me by starlight I'll come in with the tide
“To witness, your rising and birth of the New Age!”
Jimmy Jean-Louis
Dar es Salaam