A Light Fingered Gentleman Poem by Tony Adah

They killed the cow
Slit its throat and a gush of
Crimson blood spewed like a spring
They laid it on a shroud
Of banana leaves,
Alone by the side not amongst them
I watched the butchers steal the Pieces and buried between the ground
And the leaves.
I nod and suppressed a laughter
The fastest butcher rose like
Prompted by a running nose
And hid the hump among the thickets
I alone with my eagle eye meet with
The butcher's cat eyes.
Busy at the torso of the bleeding cow
I alone looked at the thickets
Tempted to smear my esteem by
The crimson blood,
As if in a conversation with a
Loitering hound, the hump between its
Fangs and trotting away
Without its paws rustling the dry leaves
Of the mango tree
The main duty is done and clansmen
Will take the share of vital parts
And organs.
But this dead cow, a humpless
Creature after death
Is shared without a hump
And the guilty came to say the
Hound had his share of the hump.
It is his way
Every little child knew he was the
Fastest butcher and a light
Fingered gentleman.