The Missing Ancestors Poem by Auaduma Adookorn

Take me to Europe and America -
the civilise enclosure of slavery,
though nature lives thousand miles away,
oppression lashes with gentle whip,
following at the heel of low tide corruption

Fly me away from the den of wild cat -
though nature lives in the courtyard,
oppression lashes with with the whip of barbwire
in concert with high tide corruption

I shall recall my fishing pirogue,
and my hooks, my net, even the fishes -
crab, periwinkle, oyster and all -
nature's own in the creel of my life

Will I munch or swallow my food -
cassava-fufu or pounded yam
with soft beef or prewinkle and oyster

I will chew bone cooked with balsam leaf,
even if I am mistaken for a spolt dog,
and I will open the book of lost memory
when I see the fossils of Mom and Dad.