Clawed green-eyed
Feline of night
Palsy-breasted
Selling old boot
On wet pavement
In hour-glass baskets
Coconut bellied
Unyielding copra
Gland exhausted
Whore fatigued
Worm-tunnelled sod
Prostituted fruit of Eve
Edging the Park trees
Like dancing Caterpillars
In folded leaves
Softened by Social Conscience
Hounded by Prudes
Friend of the falling star
Victim of the lonely bed.
Lenrie Peters (1932 - 2009) Gambia
Source: Modern Poetry from Africa, Edited by Gerald Moore and Ulli Beier, Penguin Books, 1963
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