Out of the ashes of a phoenix <br />A new African phoenix is born <br />As black and as famished as ever <br />Carrying the same loads of thorn <br />The same batches of infamy <br />Of disease, of wars, of hunger <br />The same scars in the horn <br />As politicians to each others whisper <br />Sweet lies; with no conscience to scorn <br />As they exhale and praises inhale over dinner <br />And more ranks to their siblings adorn <br />Africa stands aloof as distant as ever <br />As unique as an alien unicorn <br />Writhing in mounts of litter <br />Burdened, broken and outworn <br /> <br />O'Africa; <br /> <br />You bleeding mammoth of mother <br />You vale of tears; of forlorn <br />Your love is ebbless and silent as a river <br />Your smile as homely as spring as morn <br />You cry for us when we in far lands shiver <br />You sing for us when we are buried and born <br />You grieve for us when we in your arms suffer <br />You pamper us when we are tired and torn <br /> <br />O'Africa; <br /> <br />You carcass for every alien scavenger <br />You open wound to every Jabir and John <br />How oblivious you are to your Saracean slaver <br />What a merciful saint you are; what a pawn <br />To every megalomaniac and messianic vulture <br />Wasn't it Nkrumah who first saw the throne? <br />They banished him; I can vividly remember <br />They betrayed him for few sacks of corn <br />And after forty years of wines and winter <br />After lifeless, loveless, long nights of lorn <br />After decades of the eternal death's encounter <br />Do I see or do I dream of the first signs of dawn <br />Oh! No; don't you wake me up brother <br />No; not to the same howls and horn <br />Not to the same wolves' prayer <br />As the new century's lonely lovelorn. <br /> <br />(* Written, July 11,2002, in response to the much touted birth of the African Union)<br /><br />Bashir Goth<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/african-phoenix/
