Living in the 21st Century (11): Valley High

Louis Egbe Mbua

As many a man climbs to the mountain top,

But few with grit and whit unabashed;

To some but destiny a stranglehold is placed

On them, locked and tightened non-stop:

All plausible options are only whole despair:

On to the seas do they wallow down,

To be swallowed up by the leviathans pretend;

Drowned by tears of sorrow, a thought

To climb onto the peak of the mountain top!



The path and ways to the precipice Mountain High

Are tortuous, rugged, stones, time-bitten.

By the hands of the age, life’s fountain

In deep springs from the mountain slope arising;

That waters the same life-giving plants:

Animal attractions in the new forest waltz gate,

Put on splash for creation’s view exquisite

Show for all creatures as the cycle around flies

With supplies forever last in Mountain High.


Awake! On the premier crow in Valley Low

From a sound of the first cock blasting

Through the chilling foggy air wispy blowing

Past the gentle swaying velvet leaves

As the man in swag and the chime in starts:

Briskly through the narrow rocky path

Winding, a twist, to veer, ploughing to transform

Grassy plains savannah and forest lush

To barren rocks, feeding gulls of Valley Low!


Ladies were out on this male Odyssey’s End!

Trudging in a crowd of the siblings’ Beaux

Climbing, scaling in flavour’s respite bloom

In numbers, counting only in twin,

In pairs they join, moving in their chosen roils.

Snacks they would receive at high vaults

Hanging in the sky roofed with clouds reeling,

Waiting for those with means to spend,

On to the mountain top to meet Odyssey’s End.