Dreams Inspired By Lezare Fo Today Poem by Ndeipanda Aindongo

I dream of a life I may never live,
Memories of another kind,
Where if i even saw bread crumbs I was relieved.
but this dream may not even be about me
these are probably the visions and words of a voiceless kid in Somali
Someone who may never be honored with a tombstone,
But his autobiography will be a rock
a testament that he lived that he lived a hard life.

This fragile child knows no tears; there is a drought in his eyes
he is oblivious to his fears for there is a yearning in his spirit,
to free himself from a prison without walls
The condition of his living, a standard that never rises but always falls.
the groaning of his belly transforms
into an empty space in his soul,
which demons have turned into a playground.
So he picks up a gun like the other ten year olds
And hopes to rid his country of an unknown evil
Fighting for a life i would never want to live
and living to persevere through all the hardship the world has to give
Speak of no light at end; he has no tunnel to begin with
The disparity between my reality and his situation is nothing to contend with.

These are memoirs of an African child,
like many, who has no recollection of being embraced
the very sensation from his mother's caress has been erased
Replaced By the cold chills from countless hard floors he has graced.
But my dream is vague and cannot express the pain.
The struggle to make ends meet only for the ends to be moved,
I awake, but his struggle goes on.
I sit and desperately try to recall, future events
of how he met his end on the battlefield
After he ran out of bullets and his bayonet blunted
by the countless skulls he cracked in order to paint the landscape red,
You see He needed to eat and a sacrifice had to be made
their brains were his only medium of expression
And poverty demanded to be venerated with blood and contention.
so it seems the bullet he caught with his heart was heaven sent,
It brought to an end journeys yet to be taken.

For the much pain I have witnessed
My dreams are a path from which I have never Digressed,
they are the very tapestry of our futures,
So dream, dream away
both night and day.
For those who dream by day are cognizant of many things
that escape those who dream only at night.