STONE MAN (A POEM)

Stone man…  Stone man

The magic of the night, the splendor of the stars

A gift from mother earth to fatherland

The beauty of nature’s matriarch bordered by the farthest sky

Of whom ancient folktales were told, prophecy of years foretold

How enthralling are those silvered stripes against dark backgrounds

Viscera of feldspar, quartz and mica

Formed without need of food, taste nor saliva

Cherishing my recluse moments, I bury my scaly feet in dark mud

My source my soul thus find

Basking in the putrid rejection of a land full of Jim Crowists

Weeping at the unjust bigotry by racial purists

Those that have joined their faith to seal the curlicues of human fate

Before I submit to the doom of six feet below

A destined dust of which prophets bellow

And to sail into the after-life on angry billows

Tell me stone man, which soil the Almighty used to form man?

Did he use the golden dunes for the elites?

And the darkest of humus for hum-like humans?

For I hear them say: “Blessed be the name of Him that greased my skin with droplets of caramel

Cursed be the daughters of Jezebel who moulded theirs with dusts of coal

And woe unto the black infidels for they are an eyesore to nature’s role”

Tell me stone man, the reason my mirror mocks me

For though our skin differs, do we not all bleed red?

Or is our shadow made of blue eyes, blonde hair, and Caucasian nose?

Did the creator flee dark rocks for white houses on seeing his finished handiwork?

If not, why do we live so beggarly all because of our race?

And why does this loathe spread at a speedy pace?

Tell me stone man

For you were there from the creation!