OF ANCIENT INVIOLABLES - IKAAN

Some taboos in our tradition reveal
Not mere structures of steps and rites
In burial observances, crowning a king
Or passages in marriages and successions
But potent pillars of tacit family ties

The slaughtered cow or goat has rules
Household of the first son takes the head
The waist is sent to his maternal origin
The legs with contrariety attached
Like what the owl and the rabbit say:

Rabbit digs underground
Says, there is no ghost
The owl sits on tree branch
Says utterly otherwise
He has seen them many times

Ghosts come out of the ground
For they were buried there
No, they come from the space
For it went with the soul
The argument goes on and on

The two, scared to meet these entities
Pray hard to avoid the least encounter
For they were barred before burial
And are held up as forbidden
So they won’t become outcasts

Raise not the dead amongst the living
Ikaan, they say, kills unfaithful wives
Women who refuse to confess in labour
And hunt down the man with a feeble heart
That would not expose his adulterous wife