what did you take away?
We do not call you ‘colonial’
no, not you nor your project,
perhaps because you were blessed
with different eyes,
because you saw
in the eyes of a buffalo,
in its solitary rumination
and its unbridled rage when shot,
something that was us,
something that was us all,
you included.
What did you take away, Leonard?
What did you give?
A lens that made us pity ourselves,
a window into a world
where there was heroism
even if embedded in poverty
entrenched in deceit and pathos?
Where have you gone, Leonard;
into the pages
of an uncomfortable history?
Is it cold there,
or warm,
that refuge you’ve carved for yourself
away, far away from accusation,
you slick white man,
whom I cannot bring myself to curse?
But tell me, bumble bee
that checked out our flowers,
wrote down their names,
described colour and fragrance,
did your countrymen understand,
and tell me,
did we figure it out,
did we recognise you enough,
did we recognise ourselves,
as the sad, incomplete
and yet
so unbearably
serendipitious creatures
that we are?
No comments :
Post a Comment