WEEP NOT MOTHER Part One

This poem is dedicated to all the people in Northern Uganda who have undergone a bitter civil strife.
--Jokondino Okema

WEEP NOT, MOTHER
(by Jokondino)
(Part One)


Don't cry mother please don't weep;
When the beasts storm your house.
Keep quiet and don't utter a word,
Like a sheep being led to the abattoir,
Don't say anything it's useless.


Keep your mouth shut oh dear,
When the villains accuse your man,
Of a crime he did:t commit,
And when they condemn him,
Keep quiet for it's useless.


Like Nero, the Roman emperor,
Or Goliath the fierce Philistine,
The monsters quench their thirst,
With nothing but human blood
Useless mother don't cry it's no use,


And as they chop him into pieces
With King Xerxes's sword oh mother,
Or crush his head with clubs my dear,
Or blow up his skull with a bullet mother,
Say nothing please for it's no use.


Sob not mother don't sob it's useless
As in a pool of the red fluid lies he
Struggling in vain for dear his life
Hoarsely grunting like a pig,Do not moan
For no one will help you;It is useless.


Like the crow that swoops at the chick,
And gets away with itwhile the hen wails
So do the bastards do to fellow humans
In their hands lies the power of life and death
Weep not mother it's useless very useless



Gone is he mother to the world underneath
Crossed the bridge has he,The great great bridge
Where he knows not sorrow nor painIn the abode of his fathers long gone is he;
Mother, war isn't a weeding, no ,it isn't.

---

Courage mama when your only treasure,
The fruit of your bosom, falls victim;
When the apple of your eye is picked.
And made a slave in his own land,
Courage mother for that is war.


Why cry mother when no one will listen?
Why keep sobbing now that he's taken?
Why all the wails that wear you down?
The grass suffers as the elephants fight;
Courage mother just courage.



Courage mother, courage please,
When with long ropes they tightly bind him,
His small head laden with goods
His young feet so bare from toe to heel;
Yet he must travel deep into the jungles.


Courage mother when with whips
They lash him right in your face
Because he can:t move;
Caring less for his age
Courage mother only courage.


Keep your mind off it mother,
As he goes on empty stomach,
Like Muslims during the Ramadan,
Or Jesus in the wilderness,
Endure it mother, a man must suffer


Even when by fierce thorns he is cut,
Or by the jungle nestles he is stung,
Courage mother, courage,
Though the bare ground be his bed
And his hands his blanket
Mind not about it mother, don't mind.


Even when like his father he's treated,
And unto dust he returns, calm down.
Jacob too stopped worrying over Joseph;
So did Job having lost all he had;
Calm down mother, calm down.

A toothless lion are you mother, dear
Widowed and mother not to a soul ,
Neither brother nor sister have you,
Crippled by your fast advancing age,
Nothing you can do, nothing completely.


No one will avenge your son's death
Or that of his father; forget it
Neither our courts nor that abroad,
In the Hague is powerful enough
To pay you for your great loss.


So calm down and stop crying mother;
Do not cry for what you can't change;
Wipe your tears and weep no more;
For thsee ills forgive and forget all;
True,this is the world in which we live.