the stench of racism

the stench of racism …

1.

when rancid racism festers in cocooned fungal minds, narrow and deep,

the insidious venom of prejudice begins to seep,

infecting the consciousness of the ones who choose to blindly sleep.

 
2.

espoused beliefs held so true, seem stripped of feeling,

appearing feigned, designed, and branded as compassion,

while holier-than-thou conceit leeches humanity out of chests swollen with self-righteous passion.

3.

the racism, the prejudice is deeply entrenched,

enveloping the afflicted like a comforting shawl,

needing little to fester, and even less to mutate,

into doctrines of cultural superiority, jingoistic bigotry, religious intolerance, and racist hate.

4.

am I guilty of succumbing to this virulent plague?

sipping my tea, shovelling more onto my heaving plate,

falling into comfortable oblivious blindness,

without care,

as the stench of prejudice, of racism, of spousal emotional, psychological, physical abuse, of neglect for the old and ill, of homophobia, islamophobia, female-genital mutilation, xenophobia, of fanaticism and extremism of all shapes and forms,

of the cries of the multitudes in despair,

floats, unnoticed,

a deadly pathogen in the evening air …

The veins of Africa

The veins of Africa …

interwoven veins, crisscross this land,

this continent, connecting the north to the south,

the east to the west, veins infusing life, binding peoples, wrapped in the canopies of the forest, buzzing in the cacophony of the cities, silent in the arid deserts,

meandering between the mangroves, flowing gracefully into the oceans, knitting us together,

despite the slashing of these veins,

the plunder of these lands,

the desecration of the peace of the ancestors,

tearing these veins open,

pilfering the continent’s innards,

gold and silver and copper and platinum and diamonds and so much more,

so much more painful in the millions of souls herded as cattle,

packed onto the slave ships, doomed to live and die in shackled misery,

oh yes, these veins have felt it all,

these veins that continually, silently, peacefully, benevolently,

spread the precious gift of life across these lands, this continent – Africa …