Life Matters
I met a man from the East
While visiting the West.
He was dancing with a northern girl,
Drinking wine made
In the South.
I joined the company
And sat among my fellow countrymen.
The DJ played a Western song;
A lady jumped high
And staggered to my table.
She was from the Black Eastern country.
I took a turn with her
And fell in love with
Her friend
From the White Empire.
Every story was written to remember:
Our skin tones were just colors.
We were enjoying the souls
Living underneath those skins.
She asked about my Catholic rosary,
And I wanted to exchange it
For her Anglican hymns book.
“My God—your God,” she said,
“Are one.”
So she asked me to marry her
In a mosque,
And pray at Buddha’s church
For our future.
What’s important is life:
Not race, not religion, not wealth.
Life taught me more than love alone.
Last week, our minister
Married a disabled woman
Who owns the biggest supermarket
In the city.
Disability is not inability;
That’s their life.
Life is not just watching
The sun rise and set;
It is not merely seeing
Years pass, and grey hairs appear.
Life is love, unity, and loyalty.
The world may be wide
But would be just a village
Without racism or greed.
I wonder what it was
Before man discovered
Guns, spheres, swords, and other weapons;
Before politicians clenched their teeth
At citizens and opponents,
While their bellies grew ever larger.
My fiancée and I
Took her fair London skin
To my dark countryside,
Where African mothers share everything
From water streams to sewing needles,
And African fathers gather their families
All evening to tell stories
Of their youth.
She preached to me
How European parents take
Their children to watch
Soccer or movies.
Those are the lives we should build
And spread.
We should infect the world
With peace, not disease.
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