A Child At Last

For many days, you’ve lived life
Frantically closing gaps
That a more noble birth could have covered
Mending holes
That only love could have quenched
Diligently learning to laugh
As that missing first smile should have taught
Keeping alive the child
That could have been
And decisively disregarding the graying hair and
Ignoring the gaping of teeth
To forever imagine
The welcoming warm hands
The feel of a mother’s tender thumb
Running down your little spine…
Today reasons with Yesterday,
As if to heal that broken first voice
Tame the echoes and tear down
Monuments of tears
Still lurking under the ointment
That makes your face glow
The sky wears a blanket of many colors,
As if to shadow those sad eyes
That alas, keeps unraveling
The shame behind the strength
You hope to ignite
Dreams, oh dreams so, so forgotten….
But dark hills close in
As your cold cheek lays on the cold cruel earth
To mock the years
So now… at long last
The kindest words grace your tombstone,
“A Child at Last!”

Dangerously Rapt

Am so enthralled
Captivated by his charm
Yes, my soul delights
In lyrics of adoration
Pour l’homme extraordinaire
Lend me a brush
To etch his brown eyes on the bare sky
Would that I may unwrap his mantle
And so parade his magic
Another splash of color
Ah! Perfect silhouette
For his smoking smile
Would I quiver with the thoughts of another?
And so abandon the corner of his robe?
No! My eyes are fixated
On his eternal portrait
Hung on the walls of my heart.
See the sun that sits between his eyes
Streams through the slit amid his teeth
Oh! Am so dangerously rapt…
I know not what to say

Your Father's Daughter

written for Julie Ikopit @ sanduna 2004

Seemingly abandoned
Rejected by flesh…yet…
Reserved for higher love
Feeble hands shied away
Indeed, they wouldn’t dare…
So divinity took charge
Tucked you under his wings
Raised you
Molded you
Till you became the picture thereof
Now…
While heading home
The sun fears to scotch you
The moon hurriedly lights your path
The stars cheer you on
Remember that time through the troubled waters
The seas roared
Threatening to take you in
When the fatal yet familiar threat hushed the waters?
A spectacular scene it was
Allowing nothing to stand in your way
Permitting you to dock
Like Father like Daughter
Your presence too causes the seas to hush
Darkness to beget sunshine,
Midnight to birth visions,
And rainy days to sing heavenly songs!
Hewn from higher love
Rightfully so, your hear is so big
You’d love a grain of sand to death…
Like one who walks through the maze
You walkthrough the mysteries of life
Yet with a smile
A magical sight it sure is
As the sun shines through your teeth
Dispelling the darkness
A true replica of your Father’s smile
With his confidence you walk
Where others fear
You say what others lack guts to say
You succeed where others fail
You conquer whatever stands in the way
You carry yourself with chutzpah
Just like you Father!
A unique being you are
Born to be different
Raised by divine standards
More favored than most
Only one thing remains for you to do,
Count your blessings!
For you are truly Your Father’s Daughter!

What the eyes don't see

That deep ache
That cruelly chews on the inside like a worm
That situation
That everyone thinks is long gone
So well masked in merriment
So well tucked in tales
So well hidden in the hustle and bustle of busy days
That no eye could see

Those twisting torrents of tears,
All too eager to gush out
The moment the door closes behind you,
The moment the candle blows off;
That moment, when the heart meets the deep…
It maybe that,
The dark forlorn night flourishes
When it drags out the dark distressing memories
Once again keeping you captive
In ways that other eyes don’t see

They see the smile
They measure miles traveled and wish
They were you
You hear them
Esteem your ‘idyllic’ existence
“Oh, you’ve nothing to worry about!” They say
But deep in your heart you know
What their eyes don’t see

Just like in the story of a pricey, patterned Vase
That fell but to the proprietress’ relief,
Stayed intact
You got up and put one foot in front of the other
Days went by, the world moved on
Like the proprietress, many eyes missed
The tiniest crack that would widen each day
The dull ache that would stretch the soul
Till nature gave way
And so the vase leaked
And you walked away…
“But how could this be?” the proprietress asked
She’d clearly forgotten what happened days back
Just like they’ve forgotten, what happened to you.

Your heart aches
Your soul saddens
Your mind searches for sanity
Your spirit seeks solace
In these deepest moments of unshared sorrow
Remember;
What the eyes don’t see
God sees, and He’s in it with you

Proud to be African

When i look at you
I see beauty
I see a people whose Iam
Carefully crafted by the maker's hand

Your eyes remind me of my mother's
My Sister's, My brother's
My Father's
I see me in you

As i listen closely
And hear the magical Afro-spirituals
my heart pumps for yours
And we stand united, by the motherland

So when I see you
And my reflection mirrored in you
I feel proud to be me
So so proud to be African

My Yester-Moment

Had been pacing for days
Searching, sighing, sinking…
Seeing through glassy tears;
Eternal mirrors reflecting
The troubled existence of a
A Dame desperate
To have and to hold
Her yester-moment
And like a turquoise vase,
Sit it perfectly on the mantle of her soul…
So I kept watch
Willing the Wind Song
To whisk the waves away
So I may once more believe
Take the limits off and
Embrace without holding back
Yeah, let all passion flow!
But several moons had gone by
With not even the faintest whisper
So I dared to return heaven’s gaze
Searching, sighing, sinking…
Till my fingers unfolded,
And finally let go
Of my yester-moment