Pied Progress Poem by Kojo Owusu

Sublime footfalls
Of gods – drowned,
The expectant vault
Will not swallow skulls,
For our tainted hearth
Is desecrated
With our derelict selves.

I cannot move again,
Thorns have pierced
My heart, mire have
Wreathed me
And I am penetrating
The depths of agony.

We flee the raging street,
When friends suddenly
Turned enemies;
Those that we thought
Were protecting us
Were on the rampage
To devour us
We saw death whirling

In the air – streams
Of blood flowing
In dark channels
And bones crushed
So many people were
Dissatisfied
And savage butchery
The new god.

That woman and her two
Children, even in the mud
I can see them
In tatters, bruised all over.
Her sister was shot
In the head and
Her husband in the stomach.
I pray that they may
Pass through
But to where?

The land is in flames
Everything is in ruins
The cataclysm has happened.

Wriggling in this bog
I know what horror
Lies in blind fanaticism
And selfish lust
I know what anger
And impatience can lead to.

Now so much destruction
Is spread before our eyes
Nothing to draw sustenance from.
The only thing left
Is the instruments
Of destruction
And there is no hope
Of survival until
The heart learns that
What will bring
Peace, satisfaction and
Happiness is not outside
But within the body.