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Madness.

by laurafraser 

Posted: 19 January 2005
Word Count: 175
Summary: The Samburo are a nomadic tribe in Kenya, Africa. As part of their diet they drink the blood of cows, taken from the veins in their necks which thry open with an arrow.


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I flirted with madness
I smiled at madness
I teased madness
I then became mad with madness.

I blew a kiss to madness
I offered a dance to madness.
I whispered a secret to madness.
I then became bad with madness.

I questioned madness.
I wrote a letter to madness.
I cried over madness.
I then became bold with madness.

Mad men might masticate morsels mostly meant for the myriads
just as
intoxicated women fall and scatter like windswept leaves
rainbow like in their garbs that secretly they wish they’d never put on.

But I call to them, yes, I call to them

And all the while in the village of the Samburo,
Children suckle on the teats of goats
As their mothers haul their legs to the air
Whilst the men slit the veins of the cows
That they’ll drink like the men of the west qwaff their whisky.

I miss the madness
But I miss the madness
I dream of madness
But I miss dreaming the madness
And I’m now becoming the madness.














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Comments by other Members



Hamburger Yogi & PBW at 09:50 on 22 January 2005  Report this post
I had a strong sense of abandonment reading this poem and I remembered images of Africa (I too have lived in Kenya - Kalengin). But I wondered if the repetition of the word madness came over as madness in an everyday sense and whether that was intended. To me it felt more like enthusiasm or an embracing of the primeval - was that me or the poem?

Anyway, stirring stuff.

Hamburger Yogi

laurafraser at 19:28 on 24 January 2005  Report this post
thank-you for your comment hamburger yogi-the word madness is intended to describe the delirious 'mad' bacchic 'primeval' estatic madness that is in all of us-i suppose i could have used any word but i like the connotations of this word, the sense that the mad are no longer in touch with 'reality' as some say...what the hell is that word reality anyway...?!
thank-you for reading xlaura

gard at 01:05 on 04 May 2005  Report this post
Hi Lauraf

just saw this on the random read. I rather like this becuase it for me had the sense of a chanting type song as say might be sung in a small african village...a great rolling rhythm that woudl do well with the type of musical instruments used in these places (well in the absence of Paul Simon...I love that album...) I wondered about the phrase

That they’ll drink like the men of the west qwaff their whisky.


reason for me being that it did not fit in with the chant/african village sense of the poem, i.e quaff their whiskey....esp..what do you think?



G




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