Poetry
Mammie, it is so empty
Not the kind of emptiness we see with our eye
No!
Yet, that too is there!
The seat we made for you glares back at us every day; empty
The bed you slept in too gazes at us; empty
Your room in the house is also; empty
Your favourite spot outdoors under the tree is still; empty
I looked in your closet, it stared back at me; empty
Your much-loved place in the living room still remains; empty
Your spot at the dining table during meals is; empty
The Christmas meal tasted like cardboard Mammie, because your chair was; empty
Last night we made you favourite meal Mammie,
It did not taste the same because your plate was; empty
The pantry that used to overflow with so much food from your farm too is; empty
The fridge that was full of all manner of vegetables too is; empty
But that is not the empty I am talking about
I am talking about the hollowing space in our hearts.
It feels as though someone took a shovel and excavated our hearts leaving them; empty!
When we speak it echoes; empty; empty; empty…….
When we think it feels; empty
Wherever we look it is; empty
MAMMIE, It is so empty
Ohm Mama Africa
Ohm Mama Africa
The home of mankind
You are right when you say to humanity
welcome home!
Ohm Mama Africa
You are endowed with such splendor
The majestic Nile so crystal-clear, so gentle
Quenches the thirst of your children
Your spectacular mountains, Kilimanjaro, Kenya
That kiss your clear blue sky
A beauty to behold
Ohm Mama Africa
Your sunbaked soils have feed the rest of them
For centuries on end
Yet remain ever so fertile
To feed generations to come
Ohm Mama Africa
Your sun kissed children
Are a beauty to behold
They have scattered the world
Yet remain unbroken by the torture
Who doesn’t know freedom fighters?
Nelson Mandela, Kwame Nkrumah?
Ohm Mama Africa
You are the cradle of civilization
With your children’s university in Timbuktu
Pyramids in Egypt
Ohm Mama Africa
Buried under your belly
Are precious minerals
Needed by your sisters
You are the richest of them all
Ohm Mama Africa
When will your children know?
You have everything they need?
Only if they do not let
The milk of your breasts
Feed her sisters’ children first?
That their kinky hair and sunbaked skin
Is the most beautiful of them all?
When will they know who you really are?
When will they know?
They need to stick together?
Or disunited they shall perish?
Ohm Mama Africa!