Bring The Daughters Home

 

      ( In Solidarity With My Nigerian Brothers And Sisters)

    Orphaned tears rain today
The sun does not dry the spots on leopards

        And does the storm make idiots out of our men?
Death is not to be smeared on the innocent

        The fathers kill their seeds
Stars are plucked in the day

         It is not night yet

        How can the elderly call stump in the river, ” a crocodile” ?
How can the river eat the sea?

           Ogun must be drunk from blood stained bottle gourd
Erzulie, wake your husband up

            The souls that wail traffic in our being
bring the daughters home

           bring back our daughters
bring them back
back home

Requeim For A Dream And Nation

We pray . . .
The nation’s beauty is a casket
in our long processed history

Times fly as destiny slaps
the gentle souls

This life is opium in the slums
and mucous in the cities

Rest the dew when the dawn
fills our vague biographies

Read this as an attempt at life
Our people kill us with their claws

We die before we live
and then die again

This we live
and pray , and love

“The nation dies” is headline on the front pages
of our distant hearts

and we bow out from this stage;

Life, beauty and this nation