The Grapevine Art & Soul Salon

PRESENTATIONS: ASIIMWE SIMON

Africa

Whenever I want to see better, I climb Kilimanjaro
and look down over the valleys and hills of Africa
from splendid Tshwane to legendary Cairo
from the ruins of Mogadishu to ancient Timbuktu.
Oh what do I see? Let me tell you, my friend.
It gives me so much pain, but I have got to tell it.
There is blood flooding in the valleys of Darfur.
There are streams of tears flowing in wartorn Kivu.
Gunshots here and there on the streets of Tripoli.
Brothers being slaughtered like goats in Kabo and Bambari.
I hear no sound of drums but only of guns in Diffa.
I hear no songs of initiation but rather the noise of explosions.
The birds sing no more in all the forests of Ituri
for they are quietened by human neverending cries.
Where have love and brotherhood gone, I ask you my brother?
Where has humanity gone, I ask you my father?
Shame has found its way to you, oh my lovely mother.
Do not let sorrows follow you any farther.

My Soul

For more information and poems by Asiimwe Simon, click on Praise Poems and scroll down the page to links at the bottom.