Friday, January 26, 2007

"Night Encounter" by Ken Saro-Wiwa

Night Encounter

Coming up the stairs
Through the light drizzle
One dark night, I met him
One with the darkness
I stopped for a moment,
Frightened, tense.

He laughed gently and I relaxed
Happy to find
In spite of the gun
He was still a man

It lit the dark
that gentle laugh
In the pitch of night...

But it was only the low laugh
Of one who was soon to die.

By Ken Saro-Wiwa
From Songs in a Time of War
from the ANA website

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Who was soon to die, the man holding the gun or the speaker. And who laughs (low or high) when they're about to die?

Boooooring! :-)

Talatu-Carmen said...

argghh... Fred, you're such a boor...

Talatu-Carmen said...

It's the ambiguity that makes this so beautiful and so chilling.

Unknown said...

Now, this is beautiful and chilling:

As I was walking down the stair,
I met a man who wasn't there.
He wasn't there again today,
I wish, I wish he'd go away!