Thursday 5 April 2012

My village, AFRICA.


With each heart beat
 I see visions…
Faces…
Of kinsmen from next door
Burning in domestic flames
Screaming out in mortal pain!

With each drum beat
I see…
The Bloodshot eyes of young people like me
Balancing guns
In their premature hands

I watch in horror
As they spray bullets into the thoraxes of others

Familiar tunes play in my head
Of songs continually sang
By my mothers…

I hear them whisper to themselves;
“Was it better for our babies to be born alive?
…Or…”

I hear too, the soul of the stillborn child rejoicing…
“Freedom!” he cries!

I know how that unblemished soul…
Feels…

No need…
To grow up and fight brothers
No need…
To end up with nothing
Struggling to live…
No need…
To die with arms stretched out…
Mere inches away…
From freedom!
And in the afterlife only say;
“I was almost there”

That is not good enough for me!!!

If I could change hearts
I would touch the icy replicas
Of those
Ones who set fire to my neighbors’ roofs
And look away!
Those vipers who hang up lies
Defiling the skies
Who present poison in tinted vials
As doses of truths
We are forced to take after each meal

We are one community
One nation
With one history
 Why these differences then?

I look into the compound of another
And what do I see?
What do I hear?
What do I smell?
 I see Bloodshed
I hear Curses from sons’ mouths to fathers’ ears!
I smell decaying flesh partly ravaged by;
Vultures…
Dogs…
Those that once roamed our village
As harmless birds
As pets even!
They stood watching…waiting
For the people to slaughter each other
And afterwards...fight over lifeless flesh
The cowards they are!!!

I will not console myself with lies
That…
“Things are getting better”
NO!
At the hands of our own,
My neighbors still suffer!!

2 comments:

  1. i love this piece. its so touching... sometimes i wonder if things would actually get better. its like we're moving in circles, things seem to be getting better... then they get worse again.

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    Replies
    1. They seem to get better? i don't see things getting anywhere near better. we're not even moving in circles...we're moving backwards i think.

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