I am an African with my sky blue eyes and burnt white skin
Dreams hatch in the sun and run around in colourful dresses
Bare footprints track scintillating thoughts around my heart
Clicking tongues weave the all- embracing cloth
covering the landscape with its chanting colours
Plains dictate the drumbeat of our hearts
Forests sway like tranquil bodies in a trance
Dust covered winds dance in the diminishing light of the sun
Wild ideas sprout and flourish abundantly
Children of an ancient Mother and eternal Father
murmuring, searching, shuff’ling, remembering;
I am an African with my tear blue eyes and bleak white skin
Fears breed in the night and gorge on the scorching sunlight
Ideologies shimmer in the heat and ravish the plains
Distrustful herds grow restless, the stench of the past contaminates
Uncertain feet shuffle tentatively with the clandestine steps of the dance
Place remains the same, though not the same
New offspring, unaccustomed to the rancour glances of siblings
return to the security of tempestuous dripping breasts
With no place else to go, no place no place no place…
Longingly waiting to burst forth,
to claim belonging with a glorious “I am!”
I am an African with my star blue eyes and blushing white skin
Roots run deep and certain, feeding fearlessly on the land that is ours
Shyly love approaches, exploring hidden treasures,
uncovering that which was always there
rejecting and repairing re-naming and re-writing
wounds leave scars but Place is ever faithful
greedily and jealously claiming back the truth
stalking and stumb’ling, eventually defiantly
standing upright under the sun and moon and stars
Soaking up the nourishing light
immersed in a penetrating fertile fire
I am an African with my rain blue eyes and blossoming white skin
Sunrise caresses the delicate, hopeful, blinking future
Buried dreams rise and gather the rich golden harvest
Water covered winds baptise nameless graves
Our earth cradles the blessed treasure of bones
Young limbs follow wise footprints in the sand
remembering what was, yearning forward
stretching and testing, recovering the way
Place and Parents embrace us all
We are home. “We are!” “We are!”
“I am!”