Portion - universityofafricanart.org

Like a seed of the devil’s bean.
It looks like any edible bean
With the dark seductive pupil of the black eye pea,
Shapely rotunda of the soya bean
Fine pigmentation of locust bean.
When a farmer sees it he must immediately seize it
Crush its head before the snakes crawl
Out of its belly. For if the devil’s bean
Should take over the farmland, it grows faster
Than summer brush fires the devil’s bean
Bearing the itch of death makes any other itch plant
Feel like velvet to baby skin.
The devil’s beans came to a wedding party
All the guests ran off as if chased by the demon.
Bridegroom fled to the north, his bride to the south,
Minister who was saying the sermon,
Left his cassock behind mother-in-law who ran
Over the pot of soup, as father-in-law jumped
Into the barrel of wine when the devil’s beans
Kissed him howdy, which is why a farmer
Does not allow the devil’s beans
To take root in his farm.
My father allowed the devil’s beans
To germinate inside his garden.
It looked at first like the table bean
When he first saw it,
Lying by the bedroom window
On the dark loamy soil,
The lips of its fleshy
Cotyledons tightly closed.