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30.07.2009 Feature Article

The Obama Serenades XV

The Obama Serenades XV
30.07.2009 LISTEN

Pitch,
black and
dark as
the night,
the unknown
father of your
dreams,
the fuzzy figure
on the gray
margins
of myths;
broad and
bulging
forehead
pregnant
with placid
dreams of
a united
and
prosperous
Africa…

Pitch-black
as tar
or hot
steaming
coffee
into which
a maiden
white and
silken as
soy milk
is poured
and
chocolate
is made…

Black and
white tunes
of jazz
that gently
and
breezily
flow
through
the fluffy
green
fingers of
trees…

We come
from far
and
wide and
then bond
with time
and become
one as
kin and then
we merge
as a
clod
of
earth…

Broad
and
bulging
forehead
pregnant
with
wisdom
and
love,
love of
self
reflected
in a remote
other who is
not remote
at all,
but the self
removed by
time and
place…

Black and
white
deeply in
love
pulled apart
by time and
primal
loyalties
and
innate
desires
sown and
nursed by
the roots
of our
souls…

A bridge
between a
benighted
past and
a present
chock-full
of light
and
mirth…

7/23/09

By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr.

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