BLACK MUSINGS

i am a drum whose sound is drowned in the cries of my kindred
i ate my words and swallowed the world
i carry the troubles of the ancients like a hunchback
it prodded me to the pyramids where i read hieroglyphics & boom! Epiphany: there i stood, a black man, beautiful, loveable, equal to every other human on the planet
i carry a river of wisdom in my belly
i drank from the Nile and bloated then hallucinated:
i saw a people in white skin and foreign language-
Take over our land and exploit our gold while we remained gold-diggers
In the years that followed, they called themselves ‘colonisers’ and us ‘colonised’
we had shackles around our necks our pharaohs lost their powers
We bleached our skin & straightened our hair & emulated their accent-
They called this modernization & we nodded to it
we trusted them with our lives, but they pissed on it & all we were left with were posters & tweets that read #Blacklivesmatter

i am drunk with history
i stagger between the path of truth & bias
Should i tell you about the pogrom against Anglophones in Cameroon?
Or that Nigerian herdsmen are now swordsmen?

i wear my melanin like a weapon
i will not forget my roots

My blood is ink
My words; handwritings on the wall
i am an alarm clock
That goes off with every word, reminding my people; stay awake

i am a voice in poetry crying
beckoning my people:
Break free the shackles that bind you

Arise!
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Poem © Awanto Margaret
Image: Pixabay.com