1/31/2016
It has been reported by a survivor that Boko Haram used three female suicide bombers to burn children alive inevitably killing 86 people in Dalori, Nigeria. Two nearby camps housing over 25,000 people who have fled Boko Haram were also attacked. This is my response to the puppets who think themselves powerful.
This isn’t ancient Pompeii…
This is Wednesday.
This is the result of a different type of volcano; deadlier than Vesuvius.
This is what happens when oppression is so pervasive,
so unescapable that instead of exploding outward
and feeling empowered to unify and repair the damages of colonialism;
some instead implode,
and in-turn choose to destroy the lives of those more accessible to them.
They turn in on themselves
cannibalizing their Mothers and Daughters
burying themselves deeper under soot and ash.
The deeper they entomb themselves under the burden of familial flesh,
the farther they fall into futile feudalism…
Ancestors wail
but cloudy minded corruption, bloodied currency and the gushing wounds of insatiable vengeance
deafen their chorus cries for vision,
for a return to the regality of a people blinded to their power
sourced from a self-love so brilliant it has eroded the gags and shackles of murdered blood ties
and separation
even without a knowing of their past
the Taken bare the mark of an inborn pulsating rhythm
so distinct and viscous it bubbles up in caldrons of culture spanning every corner of the known world.
Yet at home
on the continent where humanity was forged
those who drew the dividing lines of countries and came touting the language of forced faith,
wait patiently for the silence that follows
the last shot fired,
the last throat cut,
the last ember of native life not stolen in form but in feeling
to lay still
eyes peeled
fixed on a heaven they’ll never see
bodies fertilizing the very thing
they died for without knowing
Bi: Lauren Croom