hopeasfro

‘Spirits’ I heard someone say.

I had always heard of forest spirits.

Ones that hunted hunters and fled farmers away

But, those were folktales, not considered real

A mere work of superstitious minds or a creation

by parents who didn’t want their kids wandering.

At this moment, however, no one’s eyes were

playing tricks.

The normal human instinct was “Run!”

••

Pwajok’s limbs seemed to loosen from the place

they were once glued.

He was the last to move but, he ran

He ran crutching his small important bag.

Everyone went in different directions.

This later turned out to be a wrong move.

.

Thick crooked finger-like branches

tore on his cheeks and face exposing flesh.

The monster at his heel,

This frightened man was slowly giving up.

A halt. He was stuck. His heart sank.

.

The bag flung across his frame was hooked to a branch.

He began to pull but it seemed the pulling only made things worse.

Pwajok only stopped however, when it dawned on him where he was. On an edge.

One look to what was breathing down on him,

He fainted.

..

“Did you see that, did you see that! ” Pwajok got up asking. He was looking around frantically.

“Yes, I did” said Jamilah. “I didn’t know gorillas still lived around here”.