It is this deep, dark, empty thing
caught between chest and throat
begging lips for relief in words.
The noise of 2 million heavy sighs...

I am an African woman
A vessel to be cherished and loved
My womb is like fertile soil
Waiting for the rains to quench its thirst...

Even in the marshes
We could hear her voice,
Knifing through
Our consciousness...

  It steals into our kingdom
  Hiding like weed amongst wheat
  And sniping at our soldiers
  Unbarring our gates to guests...

He seeks to abide in hearts reaching for each other
Without the merging of marrow on corridors of retribution,
But with sacred torches coursing through interstitial planes
In search of a pre-eminent monument...

Under an African sky

Walks a boy who grew into a man

And a girl who grew into a woman

Dark as the same sky at night...

I trek in distress, the route to my roots
In search of my love, motherland most sweet
Where my spirit wanders in disguise
On the wings of my dreams...

The light-hearted day drummed its way

     across the mighty savanna of the sky.

The earth rumbled with the gritty labor

     of the fabled fellow of animal town...

I walked past my father's shrine

past Ikenga, shelter of gods stringed with amulets

i walked past the narrow path

littered with ant-holes...

I remember waiting for my grandfather to tell me

The tales of life before the drought

And the accompanying strangers

Would they ever leave?