I Have Come

 

Lomawywesa
(Michael Kabotie)

Ya Ha Hail
      I have come

it was a long 
hard death

scars of battle 
struggling to die 
crying, agony/fright

gasping for that 
final breath 
and finally 
jerking in violent 
spasms of death 

But alas!

here I stand 
crying and shouting 
sounds of happiness 
            and joy 

KUWAH WA DODA NGUI!

In death I am born.
From: Michael Kabotie. "I Have Come" from Sun Tracks Five (1979). Copyright ©1979 by Michael Kabotie. 
Reprinted by permission of the author.

As printed in Larry Evers, ed. The South Corner of Time. Tucson, Ariz.: The University of Arizona Press, ©1980, p. 40.