In Kampala African queen lives
In Johannesburg African queen sleeps
In Nairobi African queen smiles
In Lagos African queen sings
In Kinshasa African queen dances
In Addis Ababa African queen debates
In Juba and Mogadishu Africa queen weeps
To Kigali and Accra African queen flies
In Churches African queen prays
In supermarkets African queen works
In airships African queen flies
In foreign lands African queen creates
Beautiful African queen wake up
The world you adore selectively cares
Do not be notorious in beauty and elegance
But lacking in self-esteem to live own life
African queen, the world harvests you dearly
Reject the trash offered and grab the grains
parting the Med
{for refugees and exiles}
the accounts passed down
through the mouth and page
no refuge for the refugees
on the angry world's stage
staffed "saviors" Kalashnikovs
met on moonlit secret rendezvous
refuge unknown where or what of
dangers abound like Mogadishu
fear rises as horizon glistens
below thin moon and cirrus cloud
gruff orders barked best listened
predicting end in a watery shroud
will sea part and allow passage
will exile end in hopeful life
will family danger's turn advantage
can refugees leave behind the strife
it's not about color or race
more the pocketing of a last pelf
best refuge just to die in place
there just ain't no place else
left behind only left with saddened
maybe memories gone in future's denied
but miracles hoped sometimes can happen
too, miracles dreamed can be delight
contemplate now the refugee's plight
when sitting in comfort well satiated
the next trek from a war-torn blight
maybe our predicament to be emancipated
© Goode Guy 2015-04-22
From the “jungles” of Soweto
To the “lakes” of Kalahari
Come!
Let us adopt grey children
Call them Mogadishu or Benghazi.
Donate your second hand underwear
To the west
Stand up! Let’s go
Attack undemocratic countries
Beyond the Mediterranean
Let us go monitor
Their elections and
Determine who wins or just
Declare rebels the rightful
Leaders of a country.
Let us go buy some humans
From across the Atlantic,
Chain them and make them
Work on our plantations.
If not, let’s go buy land in the isles
Start up banks in that land
And make the Afro world currency
Let us hold
Charity walks for sick
Hollywood stars
Along the streets of New York
Also rear goats as Pets
And hold tomato fights at Buckingham palace.
Why don’t we go
For a vacation to Mogadishu
This year
If you know where to find it on the map
You can raise vegetables
In a minefield
Or attend the birthday party of a warlord
Machine gun fire for dessert
Half of Mogadishu is on the run
To a better life
Sometimes people return to their home
If they can find it
In a crater
With a cluster bomb lawn
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