Obama
By Gbanabom Hallowell,Freetown, Sierra Leone.
Your father drank the bold waters of the Victoria
Long ago when it had its proper name.
This was before the British mirrored their faces on its glacier.
Your father in turn denied the Victoria when Harvard
said it knew nothing about the black holocaust.
That same father moderated Harvard!
But then the belly of the Livingstones kept bringing forth
the Joyce Careys to walk Africa with their petty Johnsons.
You knew it all, being a miner
And as Cesar Vallejo put it, you are a miner
who, climbing up, you look below
Climbing down, you look above.
Son of Obama you moderated Harvard!
Son of Barack, drink the bold waters of the Mississipi,
raise your head and cry “Masala, Masala” a hundred times.
Defy the winter that you may glide on its greedy belly.
Do not accept any summer until the battle is won-
only then can this century invent its first black light!
Gbanabom Hallowell © January 2008.
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