Thursday, March 7
THEY WALK AROUND WITH AXES
If you eat meat on wooden trays, that means your plates are busted.
There are no carpenters these days. The skillful workers left us.
It’s just Mwafaka and Nyenye, the only ones who lasted.
They walk around with axes, but they can’t unbend a tree.
They might have a bunch of saws. They’re up to their ears in levers.
But they must be a bit slow, since they haven’t discovered
That although they love to hew, it’s not what they’re cut out for.
They walk around with axes, sure, but can’t unbend a tree.
When they hack apart a tree and put the trunk in sectors,
Their planing leaves it knobby. They don’t sand down the splinters.
Don’t say they’re just ornery. It’s obvious they’re amateurs.
They walk around with cleavers, but they can’t unbend a tree.
(Muyaka bin Haji al-Ghassaniy,
translated from Swahili by Richard Prins)