THE WOMAN BEHIND THE VEIL

(For the late Prof. Victor Bong Amaazee who taught me poetry when I was a student at the ENS in Bambili. Those of us who did Bilingual Letters (French), took some common core courses with those of Modern Letters. The professor made me love poetry through the way he handled Shakespeare`s Sonnets to the Dark Woman and the poetic rendition of the life of Beowulf. Prof. Amaazee was a historian but he did Literature as a Minor at Fourrah Bay College, Sierra Leone.) I`m impatient and anxious My heart is thumping I just want to be there first Before they come Long before they come I`m shivering and sweating. When all the horse-drawn carriages arrive And the pretty maiden All the way from Connecticut is hailed Will it then be Michelle Obama Or will it be our Chantal Biya Or, my own mother?