Adhiambo by 
Gabriel Okara

I hear many voices 
like it’s said a madman hears; 
I hear trees talking 
like it’s said a medicine man hears. 

Maybe I’m a madman, 
I’m a medicine man. 

Maybe I’m mad, 
for the voices are luring me, 
urging me from the midnight 
moon and the silence of my desk 
to walk on wave crests across a sea. 

Maybe I am a medicine man 
hearing talking saps, 
seeing behind trees; 
but who’s lost his powers 
of invocation. 

But the voices and the trees are 
now name-spelling and one figure 
silence-etched across 
the moonface is walking, stepping 
over continents and seas. 

And I raised my hand –– 
my trembling hand, gripping 
my heart as handkerchief 
and waved and waved –– and waved –– 
but she turned her eyes away.