As I wandered down idle paths in thoughtful solitudity,
Numerous, the perturbations that accosted my mind.
How did we raise a crater that evades sheer congruity?
For a people we were, of love, peace and a sturdy bind.
Amidst a babel of languages, I felt one reverberation,
Like mad echoes in a resonate precinct, just one voice,
Like the grumbles of ocean turbulence in feigned elation,
The echoes of grumbles from a people without a choice.
Amidst the diversity in cultures, I beheld a synchrony.
Like pregnancy that can’t be hidden, it was ever obvious.
A unified tune it was, that mocked the crazy cacophony
Of our subordination, subjection and dire suppression.
Alas, we await the moment we’ll gape into wakefulness
To uncover gloominess that so envelopes us every day,
For a people we are, bound in tethers of hopelessness
And our soil so littered with ruins of our fathers’ decay.
When? When will these imprints of slave chains fade?
For they adorned our necks, wrists and ankles ever so!
When will our voices ever rise beyond Jericho’s wade,
As a soulful tale of our spell in hell is surest way to go?
See, we have the grey matter to build assured posterity,
For ebony sons, we are, beloved of dear Mother Earth.
O, when will we be liberated from civilized animosity
To navigate surging rise till our greatness be birthed?
For I see a people peculiar, riding on the wings of liberty.
I see a race unique, reveling in the joy of emancipation,
Just as I hear voices chant creeds of their sovereignty.
Finalist of the Brigitte Poirson Poetry Contest (BPPC), March 2018
Shortlisted for the Albert Jungers Poetry Prize (AJPP) 2018
Published in the BPPC 2018 Anthology — CITADEL OF WORDS
