The Plains Part 2

They will tell you In simple language (As is the language of truth) Of murders, tortures and deprivations By an alien race Of sons and daughters of the plains They will show you As in a dream The hills of wheat and dams of milk Carried away on the iron snake To feed the oppressors’ sons in Eton; They will not hide the scars Begotten in the years that followed The return of the exile And the blood that flowed That the plains may live And be, as they had been, Inhabited by their own seed. The history of these plains Has been recounted elsewhere But never relived as when We made this steep descent And I descended into memory And sorrow and forgiveness. The birds of the plains Are famed for their plumes; Their seasoned flocks Defying the public gaze When they fly- the birds, Their shadow covers Nakuru And when they roost Europeans arrive on holiday. I have seen them send messages To the Roosevelts of America And receive the same from Mao. I have seen them cloud the sky And shower the earth With their radiance. Birds of the plains! We sing with you The beauty of the plains And you carry the message To all corners of the globe, and further And as you are free So, too, the inhabitants of the plains!