Collected Poems by Chinua Achebe

Author:Chinua Achebe [Achebe, Chinua]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, pdf
Tags: Poetry
ISBN: 9780307517913
Publisher: Anchor
Published: 2004-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Misunderstanding

My old man had a little saying

he loved and as he neared

his end was prone to relish

more and more. Wherever Something

stands, he'd say there also Something

Else will stand. Heedless at first

I waved it aside as mere

elderly prattle that youth have to bear

till sharply one day it hit home to me

that never before, not even

once, did I hear mother speak

again in their little disputes once

he'd said it. From then began

my long unrest: what was this

Thing so unanswerable and why

was it dogged by that

relentless Other? My mother

proved no help at all nor did

my father whose sole reply

was just a solemn smile…. Quietly

later of its own will it showed

its face, so slowly, to me though

not before they'd long been dead—my

little old man and my mother

also—and showed me too how

utterly vain my private quest

had been. Flushed by success

I spoke one day in a trifling

row: you see, my darling (to

my wife) where Something

stands—no matter what—there

Something Else will take its

stand. I knew, she said; she

pouted her lips like a gun

in my face. She knew, she said,

she'd known all along of that

other woman I was keeping in town.

And I fear, my friends,

I am yet to hear

the last of it.

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