Listen
" Listen or you'll lose it all, your ancestry, root, language and identity." — Mr I.A. Ajuzie
listen, please, all of you, for I won't speak twice !
like a beggar's bowl placed for money, give me your ears for this advice
I came to speak, for silence have eaten away our bones
listen to the hollow of the empty tin can, thus our insides moans
I came to tell you to have courage
even if those possessing it do not get acquainted with old age
but without enough of us dying, we'll come
into this world as slaves and leave in slavery's bosom
listen please and find your way home
you've being lost for too long in this catacomb
listen, it pains me that I write to you in another man's tongue
that you forget home is not just a place but it exists in language and songs sung
I ask that you tend to the earth well
so it accepts you with a kiss as you're laid into hell
and has a favour to pay when it becomes your cell
when with tears and ululation you're greeted farewell
listen to the wheeze, it's your mother's breath
she lies here broken and waiting
she asks for the sons she gave life to
she asks why they left and never came home
she wonders why her hope smells stale
she doesn't get better, doesn't succumb to the cold grip
she's waiting...
Listen to the sound of the war drum in your chest
It beats and tells the tale of your ancestry
Listen, do you hear the warriors shriek within you?
Listen to it's fast tempo
How it tells of great men of extraordinary feats.
I came to ask that these secrets be kept
In your skeleton and so close to your soul
So they would be the last to be revealed
When corruption eats you until you're dust.
Listen to me, though I am to you just a relic
A symbol of days past and a reminder that time flies
Listen and pick out my threnody from these words
that though I stand for what I am
I hope I am not the last of this proud culture
I know that my black skin sing songs of liberation
I hope yours does the same
I pray you be my progeny
In both will and blood
I came to tell you the world will hate your skin
and would spit fire at you and your kin
but know first son that you are a human and human inside first
And that the outer coating doesn't matter