The Chad-Cameroon Oil Pipeline Project

And again: the thud of executions echoes in the green ear of Maboula, Cameroon. The tremendous squeak of the assassin's blow and the axe cleaves the trunk: the first bite travels down the core like electricity through bone. The wood rings out dull music, a drowsy monotone. A loud creak and the sky topples; a tearing tumult of raindrops, leaves and twigs. Upper kingdoms are disturbed: birds disperse and disappear with the passing clouds; hives fall apart in the fall: the royal parent and her heirs scatter in the white wind like seeds. A corpse lies on the forest floor, inert: another wrecked thing that will never rise.