Happy to announce that I have officially published my first book titled HIS WORDS. HIS EMPIRE. HIS REIGN – now available on Amazon. Few words can truly describe the feeling – of being so raw and honest and vulnerable on paper – but that’s always been the beauty of poetry – it speaks for you and through you. Years of writing summarized in a few pages. Emotional roller-coasters and flowery sentences. Personification of the human soul and experience.
All on paper.
Get yourself a copy 🙂
I saw them burn him alive!
I saw fire latch onto his clothes as if it belonged to him. I saw smoke enter his lungs, denying him of life. I saw them throw petrol on his body. I saw his eyes intensify in pain as the fire grew. I saw his eyes tell a story no one listened to. I saw his body drop to the ground. I saw his hand reach out to the sky, as if heaven would open, and God would latch on to his soul, like fire did to his clothes. I saw his blood become one with the soil, as if it belonged there. I saw his body turn to ashes, except for the bones. I saw life and death in the singularity of a moment. I saw the police drive by, with sirens on their white Toyotas. I saw them salute the man who had started the beating. I heard the police say that was the rightful punishment.
For anyone that speaks against the government.
Piece inspired by: anyone who has fought for truth and freedom.
Recommended book reading:Â #1984georgeorwell
Dear black boy,
I know they segregated your mind to swag, hip-hop and culture. I know they taught you how to rap before you could read. I know your new album confirms your indoctrination. I know your high is not of God, but of the leaf. I know, deep down, that you believe. I know you lose sleep over the dreams you stopped chasing. I know the blood on your shirt means you pulled the trigger. Or is that from fighting the police? I know you sag your jeans as a metaphor. I know your self-esteem hangs much lower than that. I know your “drip” is an ocean of pretense. I know your “ice” is the element you traded your soul with. I know you know how to love a woman, but can’t afford to be seen as less of a man. I know they say black men make poor fathers. I know your father was hardly a man. How could he take care of two sons and his only daughter? I know you know, you can end the cycle. I know you know, that you can escape the prison bars of a limiting narrative. I know you know, because I am you.
Signed,
another black boy.
Colonialism kissed,
The face of the African sun,
Systematic,
The infiltration of the devil’s kiss,
Illusions of colour,
Illusions that blinded,
The hearts of supremacists,
WE ARE CHILDREN,
Dreams of our ancestors,
Silhouettes of their realities,
Our minds cannot conceive of,
Shades of black,
of niggers cut,
blood,
Bath of kaffirs,
The knife that is white privilege,
WE WERE BORN,
With a melanin scarred,
We spite,
The stretch marks on our skin,
Yet poverty sits,
On the roof of our tongues,
Can we afford to speak?
Lineages of men,
That smoked polygamy once,
And forgot to exhale,
Lineages of men,
That skip responsibility with a tempo,
Crescendos of pain,
Crescendos of absence,
Men that leave,
Before daughters utter the word,
Father.
A MOTHER’S VICE,
Chinua demands,
Chinua demands to eat,
Chinua always demands,
His stomach shouts,
Ghosts of his vigor,
Ghosts of his hard work,
His stomach shouts,
Substances of liquor,
Substances of his hard work?
She kneels,
And washes the hand that bruised and battered her,
She kneels,
And feeds the mouth that swallows her name whole,
Before vomiting out another,
Priscilla?
The turn of her insides.
She knows not,
Of the silent messages,
And the loudness of moans,
That aren’t hers,
She knows not,
Of the legs that spread,
On the same bed that holds her secrets,
She knows not,
Of her daughter’s beauty,
Because hers, surely,
Isn’t enough,
She knows not?
She knows,
And justifies,
And kneels.
You taste like poetry.
You taste like parts of you are falling apart, yet pulling themselves together.
You taste like contradictions.
You are contradictions.
