Poetry: 'ABIKU' by Wole Soyinka.

Abiku is a Yoruba word that can be translated as "predestined to death". It is from (abi) "that which possesses" and (iku) "death".

In vain your bangles cast
Charmed circles at my feet;
I am Abiku, calling for the first
And the repeated time.


Must I weep for goats and cowries
For palm oil and the sprinkled ash?
Yams do not sprout in amulets
To earth Abiku's limbs.


So when the snail is burnt in his shell
Whet the heated fragments, brand me
Deeply on the breast