Black Leopard, Red Wolf

I said I think I found it

And hark, the man laugh and he say

the women of Mitu find me so ugly,

when I take the children to the markets they say

Look at that ugly family, look at those wretched beasts,

but that one khita, ngoombu, haamba he have hair like a horse.

But I say, beautiful wise bountiful women

plump in bosom and wide in smile

I am not a zombi, I am pretty like kaolin clay

and they laugh so hard, they give me doro beer and play in my hair

and I tell you, in none of these things I find any offense.

And I say to him

This tree, do you live in it?

He say, There is no you, only we and we are a strange house.

Stay with us as long as you wish.

When I climb through a hole and sit in the spot

I see he coming, bringing back meat

I say, Who is the man so sour with the eye of a wolf?

Who curse him so?

But children little, children big, children who is but air

run down the tree and stampede him

and don’t care that he cursing would scare the owl.

And they jump up on him and sit on his head, and rest under his arm

And I thinking these children have big feelings for this man,

and the sour face gone.

And the Wolf Eye climb up the top and stop when he see me,

and keep climbing.

And when he reach the top, he see the other man,

and they put lips together, and open their mouths,

I know.

The one with the wolf eye, he is the one

who says, The night is getting old, why are you not sleeping?

The sun is in the sky, why are you not waking?

Food is ready

when are you going to eat it?

Did the gods curse me and make me a mother?

No he blessed me and made you my wife,

the one called Mossi say,

and the children laugh, and the Wolf Eye scowl

And scowl, and scowl, and scowl into a laugh.

I was there, I see it.

And I see it when they chase all the children out and say go,

go to the river now,

and stay ’til the sun start to shift

And when they all gone, they think I gone too

For Mossi speak the Wolf Eye own tongue

Se ge yi ye do bo, he say

Se ge yi ye do bo

Let us love each other

For they two, they grab each other and kiss lip

then kiss tongue,

then kiss neck and nipple

and lower.

And one was the woman, and one was the man,

and both was the woman, and both was the man,

and neither was neither.

And the Wolf Eye, he rest his head in Mossi lap.

Mossi, he be rubbing the Wolf Eye’s chest.

They just stay there looking at each other,

eye studying eye.

Face at rest

maybe they sharing a dream.

One day Wolf Eye call them all together.

Children, he say, come out from the river

and present yourselves

you not raised by the jackal or the hyena.