Untitled - Azam Abidov - poet and translator

SAMMY OKE AKOMBI
Sammy Oke Akombi is Cameroonian, born in Tinto, Manyu
division, Southwest Region. He went to the teacher’s college in
Batibo. In 1981 he improved upon his horizon, when he enrolled
at the Faculty of Education, University of Lagos, Nigeria. He
graduated in 1984 with a B.A (Honours) Education, and started a
career in teaching. In 1989 he went to the University of Warwick in
the U.K. and graduated in 1990 with an M.A in English Language
Teaching. Today he is the Director of the Southwest Regional
Linguistic Centre, Buea. He is an alumnus of the 2004 International
Writing Program of the University of Iowa, U.S.A. His published
literary works include: Grandma’s Daughter, The Raped Amulet,
The Woman Who Ate Python, Beware the Drives, The Wages of
Corruption. He has contributed in several anthologies including
The Spirit Machine and other stories from Cameroon, Fish and
Snake Poetry Anthology, published in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
Forlorn Sparrow
Up on a topmost twig of an eucalyptus tree
Perched a forlorn sparrow
Watching the furrows of a vegetable garden
Sink under the burden of water.
And then whole fields sank.
Fields that had been laboriously attended to.
Fields that had had many a mouth depend on.
All gone! All gone under the burden of water.
The perching sparrow stirred, flapped its wings
as if to fly off, but it saw it surge,
the dirty brown liquid, turn into furrows and eat up
human homes, as they crumble under its force.
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