Earth: Song in her tears

Inspired by the political unrest and social injustice around the world.

Naomi-Moremi-Lucas: black man crying

I have no home, no friend or foe

sitting amidst beauty in splendor 

at the crossroads of what seems to be hell
is this fire falling from heaven?

I watch the ashes dance in the wind

No farm, no food just a single hoe

the land is barren and yet lay fallow.

Bought for a price; one pound of cowry shells

that your shells, may cease to rain once again

but enough wasn't his sacrifice

another round of "kpuh-kpuh, kpa- kpuh, kpuh"

and we're exiled from our lives,

and as strangers, lost  in our homes.

You say you know who I am

then you ask me what i need,

If you know who we are,

shouldn't you know what we need?

You sow in my land with my own seed

you call me a weed, where my fathers lived 

why! Are you so damn full of greed?

You stuff money down his throat

to cover the murder of your human goat

he sells you his dignity

then you take care of him 

like you did your goat. 

You're all demons we altogether loathe.

We've been living in darkness 

one day an hour a second too long

when will you die

so no more shall we cry?

What's the worth of a gladiator

thirsty for a fight in an empty colosseum?

you have no followers.

More allies are hungry to kill you 

even before an enemy

useless is your first name

worthless, the second.

Your wings soar above the law

your voice roars like thunder 

your heart squeals in delight of our death.

Tomorrow all three will be six feet beneath the floor

you will stand before the superior.

Who cooks without a fire?

a fight for which you are unprepared.

Your children feast off our flesh

our blood cries in agony,

as they drink from your cup.

What you sow you shall harvest

and of it your generations shall reap

but you're too blinded by selfishness to see

that when the plantain tree raises her hands

she ends up smacking herself.

Who goes to the river with a basket?

they were better off staying home.

Don't start a battle you'll never live to finish.

Heaven rejects you, earth repels you

and there is no space for you in-between

you evil people of this world.

I'm working 30 hours overtime

that my children may eat 

yet I have not enough to buy meat.

You think you control my life,

but while you forgot my cries

heaven heard them all.

It's been four hundred years coming 

I finally drop my rickshaw and find my freedom

now light is our burden, 

you save yourself  and help your soul.


Fimisola-Samuel