My Poetry is Boring

 How can you still be doing Afro-centric poetry in the 21^st century?

Aime Cesaire lived in another century

And so was Leopold Senghor

Frantz Fannon too

And revolutionaries like Che Guevarra are from another era

Marcus Garvey and Nkrumah Kwame as well

Your poetry is stuck in time

Slavery is a long forgotten crime

Write about technology, Facebook and MySpace

Don’t you think romance is even more chic?

Your poetry is boring

Time and time again I have been told

Yes, my poetry is boring

Because it bores into the depth of your consciousness that you’d rather keep tucked away

My poetry is boring

Because it reminds you of where you came from

And the sacrifices made so that you can be where you are

My poetry is boring

Because it has gritty political undertones instead of soft language like in Mexican soaps and telenovellas

Yea, it is boring

Because it talks of corruption in the aid industry funded by western governments

Instead of talking about the kid I read in the papers adopted by some celebrity

And other good news like scholarships and green cards offered by benevolent western governments

Yes it is boring, really really boring

For Cesaire, Senghor, Garvey, Kwame, Mandela and even Bob Marley were daft to think that the African could be redeemed

Yes, they were stupid to think the black broad nose was beautiful, instead of the hooked nose of our Caucasian celebrity idols

But why shouldn’t I talk about all these?

The Holocaust, driven by some mad Nazi lasted only a few years

But today talk of how Israelis are oppressing the Palestinians

And all you get is a cold look asking, doesn’t this buffoon remember the Holocaust?

Slavery took hundreds years, and so was colonialism with double brutality

Yet you want me to forget this African heritage?

And why shouldn’t I talk about corruption in the aid business

While the largest chunk of aid money finds its way back to the source countries

And the rest in the pockets of our corrupt leaders

Who in return provide space for a foreign army base

Or a conducive economic environment for multinationals to come milk local industries dry

Yes, my poetry is boring

But am going to drill it into your head

Until you realize that development goals, bureaucratic visions and strategic plans,

Can and will never be realized by sitting back hoping for the best

But should be driven by a collective consciousness on where we are from and dreams for which others died for, unrealized…….