THIS IS THE AWAKENING (For Africans Stranded in China)

There are beds hungry for your body touches
…thirsty for your sweat
…wanting to massage your priceless bodies
Here
…in your homes
No matter how hard it gets

II
There are wombs wailing for your plight
…hungering in fears of your fears
…heartbreaking for the battlefields you’ve been dumped on
…with no armours
Knowing you’re no fit soldiers to fight a war you started not

III
There are scrotums with anger fists
…knowing not a body to punch to avenge your struggles
…being spiritually slapped by their reversed hospitality
…acting men with fountains of tears unseen, with bloodshot eyes
…for their maltreated sons and daughters

IV
There are loving eyes burning with hurts
…thinking of you facing harm and deaths
…on hatred streets
When your lands give lives and warmth to unknowns
…at no bother costs
Think of these and amass strength to fight this trauma

V
For these are the things we need to taste
…to heat our hearts to cook our lands
…to feed our love and build us peace
These are the slaps we need
…to harden our cheeks to taste the bile
…to necessitate our sweetening inventions
These are the trials we need to face
…to act mirrors to show the reality that stares
That we’ll never be enough on other lands
We’ll always be the filth on lands who know not our worth
…and face the brunts of their evils
…should their monsters wake

VI
So mark these days and forget them not
…waiting for freedom to love your lands
Note these days and stand them in your minds
…to shelter yourselves in your flags
…when freedom reaches your strandedness
And come home with pride
…shaping your dignities to play your parts
…to help shape ours for us
This is the awakening we need
…to push blackness up the ladder of respect
Amoafowaa Sefa Cecilia © April 13, 2020