Long Childhoodvoice Poems

My Red-Cap Cock

ku-ko-ro-koo!
came the master’s voice 
announcing the coming of new day -
okuko, lord of a timing legend
crowned with the mystery
of a red-cap pointing to the sky;
he came answering a call of nature
as father was wont to tell
& i was a kid, a clan’s kid
fondling upon a red-cap of my cock.

ku-ko-ro-koo!
it came piercing thru my ears
arousing me out of my dreams
o, dragging me out of the bed!
& ’twas okuko! o, okuko!
the clan’s myriad-coloured bird 
who sits over the entire realm
toppling the crest of our hills
announcing the coming of day
like an impending egwugwu festival.

ku-ko-ro-koo!
it came again & again & again
for the thousand & one times
& i stood still like the dead
out of my thick forest of dreams -
& okuko, lord of a timing legend
who sits like an elder-statesman
as if he paid for an elder’s seat
upon the currency of a red-cap -
& okuko kept announcing 
the apt urgency of a new day
his golden voice raised to the sky
& sharper than the tongue of my gong!