African Scenery (Revised) Poem by Margaret Alice Second

Solved Africa’s catastrophes in one blast during
political discussion in French class – my theory;
the eighty year war between Holland and Spain
needs be refought IN Africa between States until
they realise they are killing themselves – and

England’s forays in Scotland and Ireland replayed
in the Congo, Rwanda and Zambia, plus a Roman
Empire of “toute l’Europe” rerun in Africa – only
after brutally hurting others can they understand
they hurt themselves

Foreign invaders’ puppets chosen State leaders
disappear, the people take their own interests to
heart, rejecting sell-out payments – learning true
governance; a long process, how many ages
did it take Europe to stop fighting, and what

United the German tribes? We needn’t despair
Africa’s future, we repeat other nations mistakes
in our maturation and then, after ages, we learn
to recognise the ‘we’ of ourselves and thus the
process to govern whom we are

3 April 2013