ROMANCE: "THE CALABASH GIRL" BY KABEDOOPONG

Her neck arches, long and slender,

Like the graceful giraffe

That once stood proud,

Before the land bent,

Before it became the wounded beast,

Dragging itself through the rift.

See her now—her breasts rise,

Sharp chiseled breasts,

Like the spears of Labongo.

Her worth?

More than cattle could fill my father’s kraal.

She is the song sung by my ancestors.

She kneels, her hands steady,

Offering water that remembers a time before,

A time before the forgetting.

Her eyes reflect the stars—

Silent witnesses to all that’s passed.

And when she lifts the clay pot to her head,

It is as if the earth itself rises with her.

Young men falter, breath caught,

Lost to her in their hearts,

Their whistles hang in the air like unsaid prayers.

She walks, a shadow on the horizon,

But to me, she is a mountain.

Her feet touch the dust,

And the earth listens.

Each step she takes pulls the sky closer,

Closer to her.

The sun lowers itself gently

In respect for her beauty.

Even the wind pauses,

So as not to disturb

The rhythm of her sway.

Oh, my maiden,

She holds the past and the future

In her hands,

Like the calabash brimming with life—

Nurturing what is broken,

Discovering what is lost.

© KABEDOOPONG PIDDO DDIBE'ST

- Uganda.

The poet persona admires and praises the beauty and extraordinary strength of a woman who carries calabash in a rural environment. The voice also says nature respect this woman.