Claiming Our Birthrights Here

CLAIMING OUR BIRTHRIGHTS HERE… Water breaks to freedom, Flows and seeks its own level: Rebirth is as hard as crucible steel. Emerging from the cocoons Of our distributions, We voyage backwards To the womb of our beginnings. Spreading our dreams on the levees Of hope---our souls anchored in waters of faith, We step on the shores of reunion As in the matter and manner of Esau and Jacob: We are Because Africa is… Come brethren, let us Claim our birthrights here. The circadian rhythms of time Weaves us together Through the labyrinth of new life--- Each womb having bleed The pain of joy of our every birth. With pregnant faith---audacious determination, Let us trod the paths etched in the mud: Footprints of ancestors passing this way before us. Come let us walk The dried river bottoms Paved with their bleached bones; Leaving the dust of marches behind--- Keeping our eyes on the prize, let us soar To the mountain top; catch the dream falling And swoop down into the fertile valley before us. America became what she is Because Africa always was: Come brethren, let us Claim our birthrights here.