Solid Impressions: Vii

(for: chinua achebe) Part One With gaiety and some pump Forerunners, trumpeters And the Gala came to us – Varied voices, many eyes on faces Swift to see the lapis lazuli Nature’s gift to a forest: (Teachers and teachees, Authors, farmers and traders, They came with songs; Scholars and scholees, Misters, mistresses and villagers, They came with songs; Lecturers and lecturees, Drummers, dancers and clan-leaders, They came with songs; Professors and professees, Pro-chancellors, chancellors and chair-holders, They came with songs; Governors and governees, Business giants, dwarfs and hawkers, They also came with songs!)