Horsemen

Did you hear the horsemen coming

I Africa have been burning since pestilence came knocking, riding on a brown horse

In he came walking, with the gifts of malaria for my children

They no longer reach five and those who do never get 25

Aids is waiting to give a real surprise

But am I really surprised?                                                                              

Why should I? When I got a cancer called corruption to spread  

Endangering the morals of the whole society

So don’t be shocked but, where I am from; the freeman drives the benz… the prisoner counts the cents, the whole society is bent… so who is going to correct the dent

Sometimes I look around and all I could see are weak men

Slaves to paper deeply held in its thrall… it is the song on our lips

The heartbeat that makes us whole

Yes we can see but our souls are blind

His brother war comes to visit from time to time, he is my permanent guest sometimes…

And he finds his favourite spots around my countries and cities

Weakened by hatred and greed,

He knows no boundaries or treaties…

But gun shots and spilling of blood/ spots from killings/ that are for reason

And there is no reason that he should even be here

When it is my neighbours children who are rich from my body parts…

So I cannot understand why I am boxing my shadow instead of walking with it

Hating those with tongues heavier and skin lighter than mine

When the sign of unity on my flag is painted in black

So these blood spots that stain our flag reminding us of freedom

Start to skink every five years as we start fighting for power

And we can feel it, the chains of cynism

The hatred when the heart flips

The red tears spilt and how they curse our land

My grandfather believes it is the sins of the fathers haunting the heads of their sons

He says that nothing really goes unpaid

On a black horse, I saw him Famine

Carrying the rewards for our freedom, the sad reminder that yes we are no longer slaves

But we sure are not free; we just tasted how it feels like

Now the rich man knows this… the poor man fights it

And the truth remains to be that the rich man’s justice is another poor man’s dream

But they are trying to fulfill those kind of dreams too

Giving laptops to children who cannot afford a glass of milk

And people have stopped listening… have grown tired of fighting

The poets are still speaking, but what can a poem do?

how far can it reach… lets test this poem

It is so easy to give up… but before I do

Let my words disperse 

Progress is based on the believe of a possibility and action put to it

We all should be walking toward great legacies

Leaving footprints for the generations to come to step in

But no we want to fly high up in the sky

Because we are freemen

Yes we won the war… but the battle is still on,

And we are blinded

So when the pale rider arrives on his white horse

He will crush us in his fits with a scream of victory 

Reminding us that broken dreams can never be mended as long as we remain blinded

Blinded by hatred and fear

Fear that robs us of this freedom

Freedom in this downside up world will always remain a dream ready be broken!

So,  we are all on a road travelling to our graves…

Still dancing to the tune of a broken flute… and there is nothing really to save

Trust this poem… we are not yet freemen and we don’t realize this

Politricks

© Namatsi Lukoye