I WISH

I wish... O how I wish
Wishes were horses
And hopes were chariots
And dreams were things
That rhymed with horses;
Not like the Marriots, but
Like the forces of Nature
You know- the Elements
In the firmaments and such
Things that shape the future.

How I wish my life
Imitated my fantasies
And respected my dreams
For a life without strife
Where all the hustling and
The dealing, and the gaming
And the wheeling and all
The other things that rhyme
With dealing, like Healing,
Will heal my confounded life.

I wish... O how I wish
Wishes were horses
Or at worse donkeys, or
At the very least bicycles
To ride the tide of this crisis-
Filled life, filled with such strife
And vices, which rhymes with crisis.
O I need a steed to give me speed
Give me three wishes, a few horses
Just give me something to ride.

May 20, 2010

April Rain

It was in April, I remember
When the world left us to die
My memory has not failed me
It was in April wasn't it?
It is April now, and it's raining
But I remember that April long ago.

I remember William Jefferson Clinton
The first Black American President
He said save only the white skins
Leave the rest for the Interahamwe
He said that in April, I swear
My memory has not failed me.

The brave french rode in galantly
With their policy of assimilation
But we the assimilated were dissimilated
When they came only for their own
They too came that April
That month that haunts my dreams

I saw many things that April
I saw things I will never forget
I saw chopped flesh in churches
I saw grown men cry as they died
I saw one lone African warrior
I saw many things that April

I saw Clinton when he came
And I said thank you for coming
Nigeria has oil Mister Clinton
So no matter what happens in Jos
You will not leave us like Rwanda.
I told him when he came, I told him I swear.

It was in April, I remember
When the world left us to die
It is April nown and it's raining
But I remember that April, long ago.

***For the victims of the Rwandan genocide
And the Jos massacres.

The Voice

I sit still, in the dark
Listening to a dog bark
And thinking about the voice that
said those things I did not want to hear;
Sweet, mellifluous, it lulled me to sleep
As the words cut deep into my heart

The warm wind whistles over my warm flesh
My mind gropes for answers to her questions
It finds none, and so I sit still, in the dark,
Dreaming about this fading voice
Pouring from lips I once kissed,
Distorting this face I once worshiped
Whispering the things that broke my heart
And waking me up with a frightening start.

And now I'm a statue in the dark
Listening to a lone dog's lonely bark
Time rolled over and sat still
He sighed deeply, and kept me company.

May 2010