In Our Fool-Each-Ness Poem by Tosin Abegunde

In Our Fool-each-ness

There was a noir hill closeby
Without a moat around it,
Like a girdle meant for a warlord;
An abode where deceit reigns,
And easeful death becomes costly
There I hailed from, as proud son.

There-in, an open arm we threw,
While we're yet innocent,
To embrace this high tension wire:
Chalk; White brains; and Grail light
Believing we had seen the light,
Thus making our heritage alien
To us in the land our heads paved,
This, in our fool-each-ness we like.

Perfectly we had traded unaware,
Blinded by the apostles' creed,
Having recited the Lord's prayer,
Our winks cost us our acres of land
The scriptures they gave to us
Only to see them claim our lands.

Indeed we saw the promised light
As it eroded our values and pride:
We took liberty for licence;
Our too rigid system and structure
Sold for too flexible complexities,
All, we did in our fool-each-ness,
How not to be fool-each in choice!

What, then, shall we say,
If they, who in their coined pranks
Exchanged our men for a mirror;
Our wo-men for painful pleasure;
Taught our brothers gun tooting;
Yet in their sermon on the mount
They say be your brother's keeper
And here we are, drooping sit,
In rage, being our sisters' striker,
Be for us in our fool-each-ness,
Who can be against us, the world?

I see galaxy of new blistering stars
Breaking forth in the weeping sky
Preserved by our ageing silence
Coming to wipe the burning tears
That wrinkled the face of this land
This will refresh our boken bones
And daughters of Zion will rejoice!