CHANGING TIMES
 
My time has passed.
I am dry, wrinkled, and withered,
my mirror tells me.
I smell like decaying something…
My joints complain about me.
My mind, bored and idle, wonders about my purpose,
my usefulness to it.
 
My teeth leave me.
My eyes do not want to see me.
My ears don't want to hear my thoughts.
My nose doesn't want to smell me—
it shuts down, I struggle to breathe,
I faint—my heart fails me.
 
My body—eyes, ears, all of it—awake
hopeful of a new something…
of new sights to see, new paths to follow,
or of being back to the time of dancing in the rain,
of complaining about the restrictions of youth,
of joyful cries of "Nnem, Nnem"—Mommy, mommy—
of swinging shakeres, singing lips, or dancing hips,
back to the time when the mouth spoke wisdom
and was respected,
back to the time of…
But then my body realizes it's still just me: wrinkly and gray.
My heart receives a blow
and my body shuts down again.
Why is it no longer my time?
 
 
FROM AFAR
 
From afar,
I see you, a world blooming with life and intelligence.
I journey to you
to integrate myself within you, to become a part of you,
to develop in you my premature gift,
knowledge, and abilities.
 
But upon my arrival,
you did not and could not
understand or accept my different appearance,
beliefs, and practices.
Nor could you comprehend
your loss in stunting my growth, my maturity
through the cruelty and injustice
you made me swallow.
 
You refuse to show me in the light,
for fear that I might generate some greatness.
Instead, you contrast me with you,
with me always being the darkness,
all for the purpose of showing me,
what you have made me,
as evidence of your superiority.
 
Behold the ignorance of a world
that claims unmatched greatness and intellect
in failing to realize the effects
of its action and attitudes towards me on it,
since I am a part of it;
we are one and the same.