Do You Remember...? Poem by Ojok Isaac

Hey do you remember the beauty of our mothers
The dress worn by your mother and my mother
As they carry water in a pot on their bald heads
While the drops washed the crying babies on their back?

Do you remember the song they used to sing
To lull you that they can go harvest spear grass
But as babies we cried and they became slaves
Yet our father were seated thinking of his girl friend?

Don't forget how they bathed us and parked
Cassava and sweet potatoes in our pockets
As we go to school to play with friends
And they flogged us while crying, "work for your future? "

Do you remember the "agwaca" and "alakena"
That they prepared so rarely yet we loved dearly
And how we used to eat posho in the morning
As we wait for tea and cassava or potatoes?

Could you recall how father used to beat her
Everyday when his lips as tasted "mogo-amoga"
And my mother and your mother persevered
She stayed but cried, her tears washed us?

Do you remember? She 'spit saliva on our way'
Because we gave her our ears and homage
But it was all because she was a mother
Dark like loam an African mother like no other.