When all ceases

And hands and feet twitch in sleep

The guttural bird groans

Perched on a pole behind I-am-afraid’s house,

She couldn’t sleep, she couldn’t doze.
In the day, I-am-afraid sells bean cake

My Mothers asked her some, she declined …

She forgot the eyes that govern at night!
The guttural bird sits now

Atop the pole behind her house

Preventing her sleep it grunts

The eerie call of the deathbird, Kowee!
Eagles strangely, shrill in the dark, shriek!

The guttural birds groan, the deathbird cries: Kowee!

Let those who tend their sick beware

Let them stay away for Death prowls outdoor

Let them stay awake and clog the ears of their sick birds

With cotton dipped in palm oil …

Lest their spirits wander off to the calls

Summons of my Mothers’ birds!
Have you, I-am-afraid, ears?

If you survive this day

If you last through tonight

Two hundred wraps of bean cake

You must take to the Mothers …

Have you ears, young woman?