In Remembrance of My Brother and Friends

I remember growing up with my friends,
Gabriel Garang and my Nuba Ajou.
We all walk to school together
looking for cows, goats, sheep,
and always playing on the ground. In the courtyard
we play soccer with little circles
white and dark colors on the back
and cooking all kinds of food—
beef, rice, chicken—drinking milk at last
and describing the best joke.

One of the best jokes
was about the two mad men: one was totally mad for ten years
and the other was mad for at least two months.
The man who was mad for ten years
came to the man who was mad for two months
and said, “Let’s burn the house and jump in
if you are mad.” And he accepted.
They burned the house and the two-month-mad man
scroll back and jump into the fire.
As soon as that happened the ten-year-mad man
turned back and said, “That guy is really, really, mad.”

And he started to talk with people normally
as if he had never been mad at all.