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.