Lion Heart
I just found this poem written by a local in Freetown. This cemetery may be the one mentioned in this poem. It is located very near to the National Stadium of Freetown.
Lion Heart
WE sit by the cemetery
On our mourning mats;
Our tears thick as frozen breeze
Overflow the dead Mano
And the pain in our eyelashes
Delude our taste for groundnut soup.
WE whisper your brave gallops
The strong odour clustered our mouth
under the stadium walls;
Our hands stretched out on agony mats
And that Sunday a bitter holy day,
But under such sea of agonies
You brought back our dignity.
You have gone away too soon
With heroic dews still dancing on your head;
This departure tortured our indispensable hopes
And tingle our vivacious heads again;
You are not gone back to Nigeria
Where a telegram could be send
Or a plane ask to bring you back.
Your siblings in Sierra Leone
Plead unheeded before the cemetery;
Our feet tremble against the cemetery
Awaiting morning without certainty;
Though you have gone away to an immortal world,
WE shall never forget the beat of your Lion heart.
by Abdulai Sheriff
Lion Heart
WE sit by the cemetery
On our mourning mats;
Our tears thick as frozen breeze
Overflow the dead Mano
And the pain in our eyelashes
Delude our taste for groundnut soup.
WE whisper your brave gallops
The strong odour clustered our mouth
under the stadium walls;
Our hands stretched out on agony mats
And that Sunday a bitter holy day,
But under such sea of agonies
You brought back our dignity.
You have gone away too soon
With heroic dews still dancing on your head;
This departure tortured our indispensable hopes
And tingle our vivacious heads again;
You are not gone back to Nigeria
Where a telegram could be send
Or a plane ask to bring you back.
Your siblings in Sierra Leone
Plead unheeded before the cemetery;
Our feet tremble against the cemetery
Awaiting morning without certainty;
Though you have gone away to an immortal world,
WE shall never forget the beat of your Lion heart.
by Abdulai Sheriff
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