EACH AND ITS TALIBAN

Every nation has its Taliban
So before eyes widely open to sensor sympathies
And mouths incense tongues to utter obscenities
Look within your sovereignty
To identify your Taliban

II
Forget Corona arresting the will of the world
The Rose has moral Taliban
With freedom reaching peaks of a boundaryless worry
Costus Spectabilis has its own Talibans
From unseen and seen hands in public coffers
…to harams without a biko
The Tudor Rose battles sores of cruelty
…hiding behind crowns of pleasantries to hide horrors
…of hatred
Cornflower sits like a hospital boss
With a body of racist taunts which trap the innocently charmed
And oh Camomile still lies with its horrors of the past
Joining forces to bring others down
Aren’t all these Talibans of some sort?
So let the Tulip be!

III
Let the Tulip be!
If you’ve no means of helping its beautiful flowers
Let the Tulips be!
If all you can offer is badmouthing it’s thorns!
Let the Tulip be
You whose nation has no flower
But sit in caste systems which make birth home a privilege!
Let the Tulip be!
Even you Fleur-de-lis use colonial machetes to siphon blood
…of colonized francophones!
So you have your Taliban
The Tulip has its Taliban
Deal with yours if you can’t help them deal with theirs
Even Impala Lily sits in rot of corruption
Yet all eyes stare at the Tulip
All tongues wag at their plight
All noses sniff their news
In a hypocrisy which spells piety
…in horror stricken spheres
Amoafowaa Sefa Cecilia © August 23, 2021