A Lot Depends On It

image courtesy of http://www.wycockc.org

Americans have the opportunity like no other
A chance to get their voices heard by voting their choice

And though some may scoff and mock the democratic process
This is not the time to sit back and play cynic
Nor be an advocate for misanthrope

Many have been killed for this chance at progress and advancement
Millions will give anything for such possibilities in their own world

So come tomorrow and the many election years that follow
Do something bigger than yourself
Get out and vote

A lot depends on it

 

* It is all over the news, and many of us are tired of it all already… not to worry, it is almost over. Until then, if you are American and can vote…may I please ask that you do so. A lot depends on it, you see…I know nations that will give anything to have what is remotely close to the democratic process in America. This is bigger than just America…they say “when America sneezes, the whole world catches a cold” it is so true…the world is watching this election and we can send a powerful message by doing our part. Get out and vote for the person you trust to do the job…a lot depends on it. THANK YOU!*

 

What Price? And Thoughts Of (On) Human Kindness

WHAT PRICE?

What is the price of an education
Taken so freely for granted by many
We skip class and drop out of school

How much is it to be free
These days as a woman
Undefined by tradition and expectations

What is the price of forgiveness
For an act no doubt wrong
yet not unpardonable or
undeserving of compassion?

How much does it cost
To set aside inhumanity
wickedness and evil disguising
As “culture” “religion” “justice”
And many such terms
Just to be humane (kind)

What is the price of honesty
Patriotism and true humanity (compassion)
When bottomless pockets can easily be filled
Unfortunate citizens
languishing in inherited penury
Passed down four/five generations
No definite end in sight soon

What is the price of human consciousness
And simple decency…

A life…
Perhaps 4
or should we just keep killing ourselves
to find out…

*For Malala, #ALUU4, and mankind.
My heart is tired tonight…I am hoping that releasing these words can, and will help me feel better…special thanks to Susan for helping me out on the above poem.

THOUGHTS OF (ON) HUMAN KINDNESS

Thoughts of (on) humanity
Crowding this heavy heart
I wish the world would live as one
Hate discrimination
Ill and evil disguised as all sorts
A scary fable of old

Perhaps I am a child
Or a foolish dreamer

Still it is my deepest and most
Sincere hope

A burning desire in this weary heart of mine
That we will get it as a people

And as much as it is in our power
We become genuinely kind to one another

Fear And Worry In Times Of Famine

Image courtesy of http://www.google.com

Seen only through the eyes
The only part her faith allows her to show publicly
The fear is unhidden
The windows to her soul reveal them
Even when her niqab and chador cover her
From head to toes

She holds her child in fear and worry
Fear of the darkness overshadowing her nation
Worry for her son whose toddler body
Has been ravished by hunger

Fear that he might die
Worry that there might be no end
To the nationwide famine
As heart ripping toddler cries are heard everywhere
Flies perching on hungry faces
Seeking to feast and further degrade
These ones who only want what is basic

FOOD!

* Written in Canada, following a BBC News report on the famine in Yemen.*

Modern ills

Image courtesy of http://www.en.wikipedia.org

How dark the heart of man
When evil overtakes it
Causing him to be outside of himself

How evil the thoughts of mankind
That he becomes so unrecognizable
He brings devastation to others
Destroying the future of an innocent
When their lives haven’t even taken off

How cruel and barbaric we have become
The human race turning on itself
Violence and wars
Famine and outlandish greed
Pain inflicting corruption
A tragic shame

How blind we are to our own truths
For when we hurt one
We hurt all

When we disrespect women
We disrespect our core
Our very source of life
And existence
An outrage to life

When we harm men
We undo ourselves
Leaving no room for role models

How horrific the many crimes
Against innocents

The very essence of the future
How disastrous and abominable
When we afflict them
We taint our future
Stealing childhood
And youth

Innocence and purity
Destroyed so easily

The maddening cycle continues
We pollute our environment
Harm the very world that houses us
No regard for nature
No esteem for humanity

How truly sad the heart of man
When it is overcome by evil

It can no longer see itself

I Sit Back…

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I sit back and I stare
I stare at their pictures
And I wonder

How can I help them?
How can I save them?
When they cannot save themselves

I sit back and I imagine
What can be done about
Their many unfortunate plights
The diseases and devastations
Plaguing them and their kinds
Passed down many generations

I sit back and wonder
Why their government
Is so callous and inhumane
Selfish and corrupt
Personal ambition rules their hearts

It has overtaken their mental
They offer no compassion
They have no shame

When little children
Our future is dropping to their death
Like flies and pesky bugs

Yet they pay no attention
They ignore the reality

Can they not see?
Are they so blinded
By greed and evil
The minds can no longer fathom
The sad and preventable truth around them

I sit back and I stare
I stare at their pictures
And I wonder
How I can save them
When time and again
They have been failed
By their government and
Its elected officials

How can I make a lasting
Impact and
Life altering difference?

I am still here sitting
I am still here wondering
I am still here staring
At their pictures

For I do not know what else
I can do…

Freedom

I hear freedom is the fear of dictators
It is their nightmare
That is why they have kept us
Suppressed and under
Their ignorant mentality
And shameful corruption
For a long time

Generation after generation
We are oppressed by their
Sickening and mad rule
Their arm of evil and deceit

Young and old
Male and female
None is exempt
From their tyranny
And captivity

We have been bound and
Subject to their madness
For so long
We have been held captive
For far too long

Now
A new kind arises
A new generation emerges
To break the yoke of their leadership
To put a complete end to the toll
Their diseased government
And ruling power
Has left on us and
The ones before us

Our minds have been opened
We are enlightened and aware
We have armed ourselves with knowledge
The opposite of their ignorance
We have surrounded ourselves with education
In our heads and in our minds

Our eyes are open
Our minds are aware
We have wisdom
We have insight

No longer will we be imprisoned
Mentally or otherwise
We break every hold
We fracture every grip
We free our minds
Our spirits and
Our bodies

We know our rights
We know our might
We have found our voice
We will use our words
We refused to stay captive
We refuse to stay under

We have found our liberty
Let our rulers begin to shake
We have found our stance
Let our leaders begin to crumble
We have found our freedom
Let evil dictators begin to fear
Their nightmares are here

*This was inspired by a post and quote I read from another blog, http://julienmatei.com- “Freedom is the nightmare of dictators” I took it as “Freedom is the fear of dictators” and the words haunted me all day, I had never thought of Freedom that way…it made sense. It makes absolute sense…I wrote this from that… I hope this makes sense as much as those few words did to me…”Freedom is the nightmare of dictators” It is their fear.

Guilty As Charged

They make news
National news
Sometimes even global news

Parading the streets of Paris
London and Milan
New York City is their
Playground
So and so now branded
So-so

They get media attention
Worldwide coverage
After 100 hours of fantasy
Or marital display
It’s all over the news
And we can’t get enough

Yet
In street corners and
Global villages
Many die daily
From hunger and famine
Diseases and devastation
Children and younglings
Perish from thirst

But they don’t get any notice
At best they are mentioned
In sheer apathy

And why should they get
Any attention or any
Recognition

What have they to offer us?
What have they done
For you or me?

Why should we care or
Give a damn
Who dies in Sudan today
Or whose son is caught
In the gang misfire on
Chicago’s Southside

How about those Ugandan kids
I don’t know them
Do you?

Except
So-so offers nothing either

At best they give us
Foolish fantasies and
Unrealistic realities
Parading their wealth
And latest worldly gains
And that is good enough
For media attention

Thus denying coverage to
The very deserving and a
Possibly perishing generation

But what do I know myself
I am guilty as charged
I am guilty of this sin

I am guilty of
Keeping up with the Kardashians

Innate Revolution

They jailed Fela
Gani F, Soyinka
My uncle and many more
Those who dared to speak
Were subject to imprisonment
And captivity

Shackled like common thieves
And locked away in isolation
They jailed them
To shut them up
It didn’t work

They beat peaceful protesters
Standing up for their basic rights
Fighting against corruption
Greed and governmental robbery
It didn’t work

Peaceful riots were threatened
By military bullies and
Soldiers – mechanized zombies
Carrying heavy duty weapons
And steeled machineries
Innocent lives caught in the mix
Of their oppression and tyranny
It didn’t work

They beat us up physically
Battered us mentally and
Struck us emotionally
It didn’t work

They attacked our worth
And wounded our minds
To shut us down
It didn’t work

The revolution is now innate
Passed down from our forefathers
To our fathers
Given to us to continue the fight
Take back our nations
And rebuild it
That our future
Need not go through the same
Senseless brutalities

We have been passed the torch
The mantle has been given to us
And we accept with pride
The innate revolution

We will pay the price
To see Nigeria live its dreams
We will pay the price
To see Africa rise from the ash
We will see to the end of our horrors
And hellish nightmares
This time it will work

As Africa and its nations fight
Fight to take back their lands
From misfits and dictators
Small minded creatures
Parading
As her leaders

Back Where They Belong

Pity parades on campaign trails
Blitz promises that go no further
Past lying lips and greed stained teeth

Articulating childhood dreams that were illusions
“I was barefoot from birth until age 17″
Ridiculous attempts to connect to the masses

Next time buy them shoes and
Send them on their fucking way

Talking of painful experiences and
Childhood poverty
How it shaped their lives
Causing them to think and
Want to make a difference

Well they make a difference alright
A difference that would forever remain
A difference in their oversized pockets and in
The lives of their misfit progenies
They make a difference quite well
Glamorizing the audacity of their impoverished mentality

Next time they come trying to connect
With foolish tales of their past woes
Let us ignore them completely
Like we have been ignored
Give them the cold shoulder

Show them we are no longer puppets
No longer easily fooled
Or deceived
The days of foolery are over
We as a people now know better

Motor mouthing and brain washing will
No longer work
We know better than
To vote for heartless creatures
Who forget easily how far they have come

Next time when they try to connect
We would give them the cold shoulder
Like they have given us and generations past

Perhaps buy them some shoes and
Send them and their kinds
Back where they belong

I Wonder

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Oftentimes I wonder if God
Sees our hurts

I wonder if He sees
The hunger and famine
The devastations and
Heart wrenching afflictions

I wonder if He understands our plights
As many of us are
Poor and impoverished
Captive and bullied

Some
Downtrodden with rejection and
Hate from every side

I wonder if some will get a pass
After enduring years of
Slavery and brutality
Rape and abuse
Coupled with all manner of violence
Sometimes at the hands of “loved” ones

I wonder if He hears the cry of a babe
At the sound of hunger ravishing
His (her) AIDS ridden body
As mother wastes away in a hut
After several years of
Physical and mental
Emotional and sexual
Turmoil and abuse
Aggravated further by
An oppressive government

Oftentimes

I wonder
About the many wars
As children are slaughtered
And humans are burnt
In the name of religion
And holy war

I wonder about
How we hurt and harm
Ourselves
Time and again
Sometimes for no
Good reason

I wonder about the many
Ails and evils that abound
All around

I know He sees and hears
Still
Often times than not
My weary heart thinks deeply
I can’t help myself and so…

I wonder