This poem, by Jokondino Okema of Pagak near Gulu in Northern Africa, is published first at bosco-uganda.wikispaces.com/POETRY. See his journal at http://bosco-uganda.wikispaces.com/Jokondino%27s+Journal.

1. WEEP NOT, MOTHER
(by Jokondino)
(Part One)
Don't cry mother please don't weep;
When the beasts storm your house.
Keep quiet and don't utter a word,
Like a sheep being led to the abattoir,
Don't say anything it's useless.
Keep your mouth shut oh dear,
When the villains accuse your man,
Of no crime he has committed,
And when they condemn him, mother,
Keep quiet for it's useless really useless.
Like Nero, the Roman emperor,
Or Goliath the fierce Philistine,
The monsters quench their thirst,
With nothing but human blood
Useless mother don't cry it's no use,
And as they chop him into pieces
With King Xerxes's sword oh mother,
Or crush his head with clubs my dear,
Or blow up his skull with a bullet mother,
Say nothing please for it's no use.
Sob not mother don't sob it's useless
As in a pool of the red fluid lies he
Struggling in vain for dear his life
Hoarsely grunting as a pig,do not moan
For no one will help you; it is useless.
Like the crow that swoops at the chick,
And gets away with it while the hen wails
So do the bastards do to fellow humans
In their hands lies the power of life and death
Weep not mother it's useless very useless

2. Gone is he mother to the world underneath
He has crossed the bridge, the great bridge
Where he knows not sorrow nor pain
At the abode of his fathers long gone is he;
Surely mother, war isn't a weeding, no ,it isn't.
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Courage mama when your only treasure,
The fruit of your bosom, falls victim;
When the apple of your eye is picked.
And made a slave in his own land,
Have courage mother for that is war.
Why cry mother when no one will listen?
Why keep sobbing now that he's taken?
Why all the wails that wear you down?
The grass suffers as the elephants fight;
So courage mother just courage.
Aren't they his own kin and kith mother?
Didn't they suckle the same breast mother?
Like Tipotip,the brutal Arab slave dealer did,
A slave they'll make him ;and truly in a war
Which he doesn't understand he will fight.
Courage mother, have courage please,
When with long ropes they tightly bind him,
His small head with goods heavily ladened,
His young feet so bare from toe to heel;
Yet he must travel deep into the jungles.
Courage mother when with whips
They lash him right at your sight,
Because not as deer can he move;
Caring less for his age so low oh God!
Have courage mother only courage.
Keep your mind off it mother,
As he goes on an empty stomach,
Like Muslims during the Ramadhan,
Or Jesus in the wilderness, fasting,
Endure it mother, a man must suffer

3. Even when by fierce thorns he is cut,
Or by the jungle nestles he is stung,
Courage mother,as the bare ground,
Is his bed and his hands his blanket,
Mind not about it mother, don't mind.
Even when like his father he's treated,
And unto dust he returns, calm down.
Jacob too stopped worrying over Joseph;
So did Job having lost all he had;
Calm down mother, calm down.
A toothless lion are you mother, dear
Widowed and mother not to a soul now,
Neither brother nor sister have you,
Crippled by your fast advancing age,
Nothing you can do, nothing completely.
No one will avenge your son's death
Or that of his father; forget it please.
Neither our courts nor that abroad,
In the Hague is powerful enough
To pay you for your great loss.
So calm down and stop crying mother;
Do not cry for what you can't change;
Wipe your tears and weep no more;
For all the ills forgive and forget all;
True,this is the world in which we live.
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