After a War by Chinua Achebe

After a war life catches

desperately at passing

hints of normalcy like

vines entwining a hollow

twig; its famished roots close on rubble and every piece of broken glass.

Irritations we used

to curse return to joyous tables like prodigals home from the city... The meter man serving my maiden bill brought a friendly face to my circle of sullen strangers and me smiling gratefully

to the door.

After a war

we clutch at watery scum pulsating on listless eddies of our spent

deluge.... Convalescent

dancers rising too soon to rejoin their circle dance our powerless feet intent as before but no

longer

adept contrive only

half-remembered

eccentric steps.

After years

of pressing death and dizzy last-hour reprieves we're glad to dump our fears and our perilous gains together in one shallow grave and flee the same rueful way we came straight home to haunted revelry.