Instruction makes us beautifully useful
Common sense, elegance, manners, excellence,
lack of flamboyant demonstration, mayhem
and the end of undesirable chaos sensible.
It implicates that here in more sophisticated circles;
a secret society has been at work with secret devices
In which signatures, lies and radiant embellishments
took to ruffled light collectively like mist on glass.
There is something invincible about womanhood
that is instilled in the wild imagination of make-believe
Miracles like flying and birth are cast out like spells
by the west, the east carries mysticism like a shroud.
The essence of African women folk lies herein, in dreams, in strife
They believe in the transmission of the human soul, in love and matters
of the heart, in instruction like a live hive they are extravagant
They lead as every woman does a secret, double life.
I have a secret to tell you with my mouth cupped to your ear
You are as inescapable and permanent as the moon
You black dog as black as night, a ball cold, cryptic
Of mass destruction
As restrained as the sunlight that prettily dissolves
In the pink sky requiring no assistance like a dangerous,
Terrifying aphrodisiac or futile labour from physical witnesses
You are as untouchable as the death of loneliness.
Destination anywhere – the night is over
I am by the time I finally get to you saved and transfixed
Will all my mercurial rituals be translated and resolved?
Shut out the noise, shut in the light, consequence, copycats
compared to African deities, mother-tongue, absolution,
the sun, the safety of numbers, of fixed independence.
I have once and for all shut out all tension and conflict.
I am now as intelligent and interesting as ever.
You make me feel
What are you waiting for? Where are you gone now?
I’ve been watching you for what feels like forever
Captivated by your youth, sensitivity, your future,
Promise, level headedness, by your feeling, example
Of personal triumph, beastliness; your art and habits
in love and hate bewitching and demanding.
My outrage is a thin black line.
Silence has become a relic
The pills have disappeared into thin air
All my life this waiting-game has been fine and exhilarating
When you finally return
No direction has sparked a change or transformation
In me; only now your silence instructs me, it strikes
a peace of mind, the ghost world that was once there
before vanishes in a blur, I am transfixed by the ether.
Your tenderness is refined, undeniable
I am brooding and terrifying; I abandon
and idolise you cautiously like glass within your boundaries
While you find my company amusing and appear to be relaxed
We are alike in more respects than one, you devil, awesome and direct
Your staying power is inspiring and calculated
Your solutions terrify me, my resolutions do not stick.
You appear to be for the first time what you do not seem.
Please do not yield to metaphysics, decay, silence,
You miraculous, complicated terrible scar
Will I succeed? Will this black smile survive?
You have never let go, ranted or rivalled me
When morning comes I am a reborn goal-orientated extremist
Please never leave, nothing compares to you
You have replaced the intelligent occupation of the sun
Finally through common sense you are dismissed, we are through.
Where have all the good gone – they have all died young
And we become like scavengers while megalomaniacs plot,
Mercenaries do not surrender; they skulk and hide in the shadows.
You shall not plot anymore as protest writers come to the fore
Mercenaries will surrender, yes, they will be exposed
For as long as they undermine they defy justice and integrity
And pursue evil for their own wilful gain; power has twisted their minds
Diana, the princess of hearts is gone, gone, gone
But the landmines are still here
Someone got hold of Ken Saro Wiwa, Chris Hani,
Kwame Nkrumah, Patrice Lumumba, Samora Machel
There are many more who witnessed atrocities and who paid
With their lives and sacrificed their lives for our freedom.
Was Diana thwarted in her eagerness to get rid of those horrid mines?
Did those master minds in the Oval office or even 10 Downing Street?
Prefer her death to her furious life?
They would prefer promises, lies instead of decency and truth.
I, yes I, shall never fear those shadows.
Diana's tragedy has removed a leading proponent
Of the devastation caused by the colonial masters
We are scavengers, regal and wild like the generations
That has come before us who embraced exposure even
In hunger, daily starvation, dying states of emergency
Stewing, stewing for all of eternity that lingers like tenderness.
The west is like a piece of splendid coloured glass –
glittering, transparent, decadent and it eventually gives way to decay
I do not thirst for their pre-arranged symbolism
I do not hunger for their restlessness, it only cools my anger
And offers me a brief respite to know how thankful I am
to my bloodline, to Africa, that you, Africa are ancient, gold
and in the beginnings of a regenerative state.
As all protest writers have said before, 'Let us venture now
Where our forefathers were brave enough to so do before'.
Let us no longer quietly deliberate our fate or our discoveries
Let us instinctively gather our collective histories that remain
Africa is ancient - it has made me humble.
