Tears of Change

What gathering is this,
Of song and dance and outburst
And a rare blend of black and white?
What rhythm pierces my heart
In the backdrop of a modern drama?
It reminds me of a rhythm which flourished
In the deep African jungles
Before historians learned their art.
Oh wild emotional cries
Do you come out of joy or sorrow
Or a mix of long suppressed emotions?
Which are more costly tears here
The ones shed by the real liberated souls
Or those shed by their former masters
For their fathers’ mistakes rewritten?
I don’t know!
But I know,
You are the change!
You are the peak of human history,
You are the end of an end,
Barack Obama

I have a glimpse of your forefathers
Burnt even by the cruel sun,
Who tattooed their pains in their flesh,
Who as buffaloes were sold and thrashed
In the apartheid market places.
I recollect your hungry eyes,
Dried flesh and burned skin.
When oodles of freedom enshrined
The living beings on the earth
You like Lucifer’s party were chained
To groan and fume.

Oh black beauties,
Art of oil and cloud,
I capture the scene of
You chained in the ashes.
Oh dearest Africans,
You are the real emotional beings:
When you sing,
When you laugh,
When you cry,
I see the passion of emotions.
Today I see
Luther, Biko, Lincoln
Mandela, Gandhi and
A million others
Shed tears in the sky
The tears of change!