Scars are maps to old songs,
Brewed when tears have no tongues
To tell of joys.
We shall not word so loud a rock, Abirmuoth.
We are birthed by a land
Where men barter livers
For drops of honey.
Sometimes we grope
For our fathers in lakes
Of solemn nights and unfiltered echoes
Of bruised laughter.
Echoes of a land where lightning cannot find
Roots through darkness of crowned hearts.
Sometimes when our fathers bid us farewell
We begin to be sure the moon will find them.
We begin to think
The body like the night
Wears its scars as stars. ©

Marial Awendit
Marial Awendit – is a South Sudanese poet and essayist, born Dec. 1991. He writes from Yirol, Eastern Lakes State. His poems have been published in Brittle Paper, Kalahari Review, African Writer, Praxis Magazine Online, Best New African Poets 2016 Anthology, and elsewhere lit. He won the 2018 Babishai-Niwe Poetry Award.