Waking up in Africa

I woke up and I went to the loo.
I looked in the mirror and saw
I saw the fairest of them all, you.
But I saw the visual of a beauty that used to have more.

So I rinsed my face.
I took away the suffering, the oppression and the poverty
(Curse!) How the years of colonisation have given you an embrace.
How people have taken you, a nation, and made you just a property

I woke up and I looked at the mirror once again.
I saw the beauty unparalleled. I saw the love that you are
But the years of being commoditised have left blemishes. A stain.
But you are still as high as the sky. Mother to the humanity, sun, the moon and the star.

I looked deeper at my face
And I saw the inner me, the me that is always overlooked
I saw a people with love, compassion and humanity. The African race.
And no longer were people separated. They were unified.

I woke up and I smiled to brush my teeth
I saw the filth. The leftovers of years of oppression
You were but a sword, filled with blood of illicit carnage, returned to thy sheath.
This has been the cause of this suffering, even during freedom. A regression.

I brushed my teeth and removed the dirty muck
I educated your people and empowered them with knowledge
I gave them power and replaced what was bad luck.
And now your peoples' future was bright and white. And success became their pledge.

Siyaduma Noël Biniza

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Name	Comment	Date
Mandy	This poem has a lot of potential I like the thread through the poem (ablutions) and the use of metaphor. I would like you to pay more attention to rhythm A poem need never rhyme but it must have rhythm and that is much more difficult to create	2007-11-10