Once, We Were Men

Once, we were men

We hunted

Our weapons crude, our clothing barely protecting us from the harsh weather

Still, we hunted,

Gathered

And brought home the spoils

Proudly, we watched

As our women roasted the wildebeest and our children shared the wild berries

We lived as one; my child was your child

My people were your people

Your home was my home.

Today, we no longer hunt game

Instead, we hunt each other

And gather dead bodies

In the name of love, God, country, tribe, race, resources, and freedom,

We crush each other, easily

As we would crush an irritating bug crawling on our skins

Ethnic cleansing, genocide, crimes against humanity

Sophisticated words for heinous deeds

Racism

Tribalism

Nepotism

Xenophobia

-isms and phobias

We focus on our differences and find a reason to shed blood.

Once, we were men

We tilled the earth

Ignoring the sweat and the pains from our exertions

We would dig, plant, weed, water and harvest

We coaxed and cared for the earth, gently

(Like we would a beautiful woman)

Until it bore us fruit

From sunrise to sunset

We would speak to the soil

And to the crop it bore us.

Now, we no longer work the earth

Instead, we steal

It’s a hard-knock life, we explain

So we take out our guns and rob our brothers, our neighbours and our friends

Our children, they walk the streets aimlessly

Begging

Pleading

Beseeching

For a morsel to still their grumbling stomachs

The light has gone out of their eyes,

The youth out of their limbs

They no longer run

They drag their feet instead, slowly like old men who have seen too much.

Kwashiorkor

Malaria

Diarrhea

Malnutrition -

Unwanted companions for our children

Our children are dying

Our women, they can’t stop crying

Yet, our only concern is pleasure, self-gratification

So we fuck indiscriminately – man, woman, child, and animal

And just for the hell of it, we rape our sisters, our daughters and our mothers

Cruelly, we bear more and more children

Only to subject them to the same fate

Once, we stood tall and roared like lions

Today, we crawl in our own shit like dreaded rats

- All Rights Reserved. ©, N.L., 2007