Zenariah Barends pays tribute to veteran journalist Karima Brown who died of complications due to Covid-19 this week.
Ode to a Wild Woman (for Karima Brown)
How will we be in this world without you?
Oh wild woman
oh fierce spirit
sharpened
to pierce the hidden veil
driven
by your uncompromising vigilance
You travelled
the unenviable path
of the hero
From behind your framed eyes
You roared with a smile
Springing from your incisive mind
laced with wisdom
your questions
unveiled forbidden cities
rendered visible
spiralling castles built on blood
made public
avaricious deceit
unmasked the oozing slime
of our country's underbelly
pointed out
who would be Ozymandias*
amongst us
The storyteller tells of women
who run amongst wolves **
of curious women who leap
from wily traps
that would ensnare them
who dart from those
who would imprison them
Wild, wonderful women
sisters, mothers, daughters, lovers
blissfully dancing
as they rip the spiteful corset
that constrains them
Fighting and loving hard
who cherish their children
as life itself
Oh how we grieve
wild woman
this is not the end
You watered
your garden well my love
precious flowers bloom
as holy tears fall
a river flows
to the boundless ocean
so take a deep rest
when you find that soft shore
Your life's work
so profound
will shine golden
like the brightest of stars
* References: Ozymandias - a poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley and Women who run with the Wolves - Dr Clarissa Pinkola Estes
** Zenariah Barends is former chief of staff at Independent Media and current head of publications at Community Chest.