Mosquito - A Poem in Pidgin English

By Peter Vakunta

Some day been be/
Mr Mimbo Eye/
Yi go sule yi mimbo/
Sotai yi crish/
Na yi wey he de waka/
Kunya kunya de turn back/
For yi long/

Taim wey yi done reach for yi long/
Yi kop nye for nang/
But dis barlok mosquito/
Yi no greeng mek Mr. Mimbo Eye nang/
Nwing!  Nwing! /
For yi ear/
Nwing!  Nwing!/
For yi head/
Nwing!  Nwing!/
For yi back bed/
Nwing!  Nwing!
Side by side/
Ah! Ah!/
Na which kind barlok be dis no?/
Nwing!  Nwing!/
For yi foot/
Nwing!  Nwing!
Na wawawa-oh/
Nwing!  Nwing!
Mr Mimbo Eye yi wakeup/
Go take yi cutlass/
Yi try for cut da mosquito/
But yi no fit see’am/
How wey jobajo too be fullup for yi eye/
Nwing!  Nwing!
Mr. Mimbo Eye yi throway cutlass/
Yi take axe but yi no fit see da mosquito/
How wey dark too be dey for yi long/
Nwing!  Nwing!
Mr. Mimbo Eye yi throway axe/
Yi carry bucket for wata/
Yi throway’am for yi bed/
Nwing!  Nwing!
Wata no catch da mosquito!/
Nwing!  Nwing!
Na dat taim wey eye for Mr. Mimbo Eye cring/
Yi check for yi head/
Say pala-pala wit mosquito/
Na daso cry for swine/
Nwing!  Nwing!
Just now Mr. Mimbo Eye/
Yi no fit nang/
How wey yi bed fullup wit wata/
Nwing!  Nwing!
Mosquito na Barlok

Peter Wuteh Vakunta was born and raised in the village of Bamunka-Ndop in Cameroon. Vakunta teaches in the Department of French and Italian at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where he is also completing his PhD dissertation titled: Translation in Literature: Indigenization in the Francophone Text. Vakunta is poet, storyteller and essayist. His published works include Better English: Mind Your P's and Q's, Lion Man and Other Stories (short stories), Brainwaves (poems), Pandora's Box (poems). African Time and Pidgin Verses (poems), Square Pegs in Round Holes (essays), It Takes Guts (essays) and Cry my Beloved Africa. Essays on the Postcolonial Aura in Africa. Vakunta's literary works have earned him several awards in the U.S.A, U.K and Africa.