Their tales trail after me
\nsince I was told of them
\nfrom when my head was at my knees.<\/p>\n
Mbeku, the tortoise,
\nhe is the chief con man.
\nHe called his name, “Everybody”
\nso he could own and eat
\nthe due meant for everyone
\nwhen animals went up to the sky for a meeting.
\nEach time my eyes spot a tortoise,
\nI keep wondering why he chose to be that crafty.
\nYet, I have seen people like him in the human kingdom.<\/p>\n
Okili, the bird,
\nshe is the impatient mother bird
\nthat won’t sit tight to build her nest
\nlike Nzia, her peer, did.
\nNzia’s nest will keep the rains out,
\nit will take the sun’s heat away.
\nBut here is Okili’s nest,
\nit can’t hold off a drop of rain
\nor keep the sun’s heat out.
\nYet, I have seen people like her in the human kingdom.<\/p>\n
Nchi, the greater cane rat,
\nhe is the one who asked the hand of
\na king’s daughter in marriage.
\nHe even contested with a human being
\nto compete for the beautiful bride.
\nIf it wasn’t for folk tale or fiction,
\nhow could anyone conceive a story like that?
\nYet, I have seen people like him in the human kingdom.<\/p>\n
Their tales trail after me
\nsince I was told of them
\nfrom when my head was at my knees.<\/p>\n
Our antagonist, the tortoise, comes to mind again.
\nAll birds lent him wings so he could fly with them to the sky.
\nAfter he deceived all the birds, they took back their wings,
\nand he had to fall back to earth.
\nThat, they said, is why the tortoise’s shell is cracked.
\nSuch lofty tale!
\nYet, I have seen people like that in the human kingdom. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Their tales trail after me since I was told of them from when my head was at my knees. Mbeku, the tortoise, he is the chief con man. He called his name, “Everybody” so he could own and eat the due meant for everyone when…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1389,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-117345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marathon-poem"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1389"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117345"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117345\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":124616,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117345\/revisions\/124616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}