9.Map of Storms - Duncan McGibbon (13 inch ebook reader txt) 📗

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The people in the mountains saw the strom
lit blood and the thunder-shaken earth
they considered Kamage drowned
and all his cattle.
Yet when the sun came out again
water still flowed from their houses
but the herds of Kanaga stood motionless
as if nothing had happened

"I told you he was magic,"
shouted the brigand's chief
The magic is in the white ox.
Kill the ox and his power is gone.
He told the men to kill the ox
Then he stabbed at the ox with his assegai

Yet the villages drew breath as it bounced off
and hit the thrower drawing blood from his arms.
Then the chief grabbed Kamaga
Tell the ox it must die,
otherwise you will die
Then Kamaga said;
Ubongopa, your death is due
as sudden as the rainstorm
but you will feel nothing, nothing
Soon we will meet again
We're going where we've never been
captured by thieves we've never seen


6. Nonquase

They killed the white ox and skinned it,
they cut its meat into pieces.
A fire was make for the meat to be eaten.
The chief declared each should go down
and wash in hte river to wash
the evil spirits from our bodies
Kamaga reverantly spread out the meat
on the white ox-skin, stood up and
intered.
Wake up Ubangopa
wake up and get up
The sun has arisen
in the light of dawn
Then the ox stood up
and Kamaga intored
we shall go forth
now is the time
to go to the hills
through the valleys
where the moss
is freshened by the dew.

7. Makgowa

Kamaga led the people on Ubongopa
through the gate, but hte villagers stopped them
and shrieked:
Kill the child, kill the lead soldiers
Kamaga intired again:
Ubongapa, stand still,
there is no need to run
Now it is the time for conflict
It is the hour of assegai
Some will live on. Some will die now.

8. Volksraad

Now the chief ordered the boy to get down.
He got down and bravely went towards the soldiers.
The soldiers threw their spears
which arched and struck the ground
before Kamaga.
The fearful soldiers retrieved them
and tried again. The same thing happened
but now the soldiers retired in fear.

9. Broederbond

Kamaga entered
Now all of you are going to die
and took a spear from the ground.
and threw it at the chief who fell dead.
as did his followers.
Kumaga struck the body with the spear's butt
and all the followers except the chief, stood up again
in fear except the chief
who stood as if to throw his spear again
The boy spat on the ground. His
spittle massed to form a termite's den
through which a voice echoes.

As mighty as the nearby mountains
as strong as the sunlit peaks
Throw the assegai at the primitive warrior.
The spear passed through the air
and hit the chief in hte foot
with the but of the spear. Kamaga
struck the corpse of each dead man
but not the chief who lay where he fell

All the people gathered round Kamaga
they sang together
you are our leader
We are your people
You must command us
We must obey
From this time onwards
From this minute on

10. Mukurob

Kamaga invested control over all the people
in the tree tribes and took over theri cattle
which he led seated on Ubongapa
He then sent a letter telling his father
that he was alive and wanted to come home
His father would not believe him
and replied:

'Send me an ox that was stolen with you
on the night you disappeared - come back to me
my lost son, your people are waiting.
When I die you will be leader and I
have chosen a beautiful bride for you
Ubingani's daughter, Umakual's son,”

Kamaga came riding on the white ox
followed by the people of the three tribes
and their cattle. As he approached
he chanted.

Let us go back to the kraal.
The sun is going down.
The leopard will soon be creeping
lusting for conflict.
greedy for cattle.

The White Crane
August Ninth 1945

It was hard going through the wards as they were already burning. On the way I was asked for water, death, mothers The rain ceased and an evening mist began to settle on the ground.The region was burning and grew redder into the night.The people going up the hill grew less.Some climbed only to paradise. I found my way home, to find my wife and three daughters running out to meet me.Little Yamamotu came out slowly, his head and hands bandaged. That night I got him to smile,as I picked up the little book and read to him.

“In Gyotoku, a peasant family
had a single son, Chutaro.
He spent his time
between paddy fields,
for a handful of rice
and the forest, gathering
an armful of timber.
Obedient and diligent,
he was constantly
ragged, yet never failed
to show kindness
to passing travellers.
Chutaro, toiled alone
in his old parent's
paddy fields, scavenged
and grew up in silence
and tender vision.
and would never kill,
despite an earful
from his local lord’s voice
cursing him each time
he turned a deer from
its trap or a bird
from the nets.

One day he rescued
a wounded white crane,
as snow-tinged
as the Eastern Pearl,
from a tree.
He removed it
and took it home
Chutaro went out the next day
to release the bird
deep in the woods.

Then, for a handful
of rice and a
bundle of timber
he went back to work.

One evening
as he came home
from the woods,
his mother
ran out to meet him
and told him
a beautiful girl
had come
with a large bundle
as if she had come
from far away.
When Chutaro
reached home.”

My son sleeps.I am afraid for him.

August Tenth

Professor Kataoka was struck down in the Out-Patients clinic.
I saw them bring him in on a bicycle-drawn cart in the evening.
He will not eat or drink. He is weak. His face is loamy-brown.
His mental state is clearly changed.
He wants to go home. In an even voice, he mouths senseless drivel.


“Tanaka, my father deceived us,
nagged by the ghosts of the empty house,
he told me he danced quicksteps with the beautiful
Yoshiko. It was New Year’s day. She amazed him with her memories
of a Buddhist funeral in Tokyo twelve years before.
He told me the moon was bone-white that night.
He boasted she plaited her legs around him,
kissed him gently to a shellac blues number.
He called her a stricken creature, wounded by the fear
of strangling which her father’s father
apparently induced by raping her at twelve
before passing her onto her stepfather at sixteen.”

I examined my son’s burns.The burned areas were the neck, entire back, right forearm and back of the hand, but it was less than one third the body’s surface. He should not die. I was grateful his face was not burned. Reading to him calms him down and helps him sleep.

“He saw she
had not left
the doorstep
The lovely girl
'Are you Chutaro,
she asked when
he came up to him.
"Yes", he said
"Can I help
you in anyway?

"I have been here
since daybreak"
she said, plainly
and without
any further explanation.
Chutaro, bewildered
and entranced,
invited her in.”

The professor had no choice but to spend the night in the hut. He goes on raving. He tried to eat some rice-balls we had cooked in the open air over a fire.We can only buy food from local farmers. The guards will not let us take the military food. I listen to his nonsense..

“She had dumped a
Manchu husband
husband in Tokyo
to adventure with an MP
until broke with her needs,
he went back home.
Tanaka was a commoner,
a drawer of rice and wood
and she, the daughter of an Iron-
Prince and the Emperor's intimate.”

I have given him heart stimulating drugs

My son was lying with his whole body in the tatami room. He was sorry for the worry he had caused. He talked about how the disaster had happened and the terrible white flash. I calmed him down and told him how brave he had been. I found the place in the scorched book and read to him again.

“After they had eaten,
Chutaro was shocked
when she asked him
if she were worthy
to marry him.
His anxious parents
explained they had
no money
and could not
find the enough
to marry their son
to her.”
She replied
"A good heart,
not riches
make for
a happy life.
Let me stay
and I will work
at anything
you ask
Chutano,
speechless,
could only
nod agreement.
“My name
is faithful
Kamachi,”
she added.”

My son must have been wearing a cap when the explosion happened. The exposed portion of the back of his head was burned bare, as if it had been shaved.

I stayed overnight at the Shisaku house. At night, despite the glow of fires, we felt safe for the first time.

August Eleventh

I went to the University the next day with a neighbour.. We took a short cut over the railway tracks. The Professor’s condition is unchanged evcept that he constantly wants to go home.He tells me more about his father.

“The next day Tanaka went back to work
for the Special Service Organ
His secretary ran out to meet him
to say a beautiful girl was waiting for him
She had borrowed one hundred and sixty dollars
and more during the days,
as if camped on his doorstep.
I rememered what he said about her
The girl wore a grey and black kimono.
Her long necked head
was crowned with bobbed black hair
and three combs
one red and two, on either temple, white.
Her eyes were bright,
though her lips wer pale
and she was his debtor,
which dissolved his caste inhibitions.”


I found it difficult to get home, as the casualties were building up and medical supplies were running out. At last I managed to get the staff to ration the remaining guaze, iodine and lint and went off duty.

It seems Seichi had been on the second floor of the Mitshubishi factory. He was sketching a drawing when the the lightning flash exploded. Then the whole building shook as if in a earthquake. The room began to collapse and he had run out. He seemed in high spirits, though and said he wanted to hear the rest of the story.


“They married
and Chutaro
took to the paddy fields
and the woods again.
though he
hurried home
sooner,
to be with his bride.
As she worked
hard all day,
his parents
never uttered
a dissenting
word

There are parts too blackened to read. I make them up to let my son sleep.

The lovely girl
wore a grey