LAMENT OF AN ARTIST
 (to Christopher Okigbo)
 
by Kevin Echeruo (1947-69)

 SHE will weep for me,
 now the priest has left
 the palm grove,
 left the palm groves
 the masks dance
 in blood and black-out
 
 Am I Christ for sacrifice?
 
 Lord hear our prayers,
 give the faithful departed
 his pen and deep ink-pot
 and Idoto shall rejoice
 when ögbanje and his bangles
 shall return,
 never to leave
 The Palm Grove for the Theatre.

 
written 1967
first published in Nsukka Harvest: Poetry from Nsukka, 1972