Love Deffered Poem by Dr. Ahmed Gumaa Siddiek

I
It was fifteen years ago
I was forty-five
You were twenty-two
Tall as a palm tree
And you were all fresh & free
Beautiful, young and smart
In fact, you were a piece of art
II
Ebony was your colour
Cocoa was your flavor
Ivory was your smile
Jasmine was your smell
That could march hundreds of miles
Into our young nostrils
III
You walk like a military personnel
In fact, you walk like a colonel
Tall and slim as a nail
IV
When you show up.... accompanied
With the whole charm of the continent
The flavor of tea from Kilimanjaro in Kenya
The odor of coffee from Abyssinia
And the cocoa aroma from Ghana
And the richness of the tropical forests from Equatoria
And the fresh Nile from Victoria
V
Oh my African queen
With your Ivory smile
And Ebony style
You are the real pride
Of your African tribe
In fact you are the pride of all tribes

My African queen
With your Ivory smile
And Ebony style
You are truly the bride of the Nile
VI
You were the jewel of our English class
Do you remember Sembene Ousmane?
'Tribal Scars and Letters from France'
Working together on Langston Hughes
Listening to the Jazz, the Pop and the BLUES
Coming from the high lands of New Orleans
And the old Mississippi
And we heard the high voices of Harlem
And New York in the English (B)
Mt queen, we did have a nice time
With Andrew Marvel in his rhyme
In his Coy Mistress
Then Shakespeare with (thou) and (thee)
In his English summer day
But you were lovely, and more temperate
Than any Shakespearean sonnet
Because you were so African
And more beautiful, than any English summer day
And you will remain beautiful as you were yesterday.
As today and tomorrow, and as everyday
VIII
That was fifteen years ago
I was forty-five
And you were only twenty-two
I know I am bad at mathematics
But I am sure now about my sixty, so..
As I am certain about your twenty-two!
But you are still that African palm tree
Always lovely and green,
smart and tall and free
Oh my African Queen
And thus you will remain
As young as you want to be
cause age will never tell on you
But it will only, only tell on me
IX
You will read this poem
And you will know
It's specially designed for you
And you will get the message
In a minute or two
As you are always smart
And the same piece of art.
And as it was fifteen years ago
You are still twenty-two!
X
Sometimes I spy on your dreams
To see if I am there with you
Sometimes I spy on your page
On the Facebook to guess your age
And wonderfully you are still
That beautiful typical African girl
And still not engaged
At this age! ! !
Because of your high selectivity
And because of your high taste
You will never meet an equal mate
Because of your high rate! ! !
XI
I am sixty
You will never be thirty
You will always keep to your twenty-two
As time does never show any disparity on you
And we will never meet
And I will never be your mate
I know this is my fate
Like the East, that will never meet with the West
XII
It was fifteen years ago
I was forty-five
You were twenty-two
Tall as a palm tree
And you were all fresh & free
Beautiful, young and smart
In fact, you were a piece of art
So, stay at your twenty-two
May God bless you
And all of you
My African Queen