YOU MIRROR OF OUR STUPOR

They think me mad
Because I stand here like an intrigued audience, watching you
They think it sad
Because I stand here like an awed tourist, smelling you
Many are they who pass you by like a thing unworthy
Forcing questions to ask themselves in head as to who made you unworthy

II
You represent all that we are
Our sorrows
Our tears
Our happiness
Our fears
Our sins
Our wickedness
Our comfort
Our penury
Our hatred
Our love
Our deviancy
Our intelligence
And you are candid, judging by your looks and smell

III
For in you are traces of murdered beings
…poorly parcelled through the blanket of darkness
For in you are traces of needs of the barren
…and the prayers of those in need of the fruits of womb
In you are the tears of blood shed
…and the evidence of blood unshed
In you are the debris of our filth
…and the horrors in our quilt
In you are the traces of our love
…and evidence of our criminalities
In you are the ashes of our comfort
…and horrors of our needs
In you are traces of our abundance
…and the pictures of our wickedness
In you are our treatment of nature
…and seeds we have broken
…seeds our earth cries for
…same seeds we’d need and cry for in vain in the near future
In you are the ashes of materials whose past importance
…took lives whose breaths were full
In you are the dirtiest parts of us
…those we don’t want to see
In you are delicacies we cherished
…only to detest after consuming
Most importantly, in you is our reflection
…the one reflection we need to straighten our direction
But we refuse to see you as the mirror you are
Raining insults on you and your kind with our attitudes and words
Our insults and body languages which deflect back to us

IV
So I watch you
I smell you
I look at me in your eyes
And feel the vanity in my veins
Forcing me to worship you
You Dumpster reduced to the name “rubbish”
Going through piling and hellish burning
…all year long
Amoafowaa Sefa Cecilia © July 28, 2021