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Babatunde Raimi Oct 2019
Poverty is a curse
A plague to be avoided
Work smart, lest you be poor
You too can cross the line
That very thin line
That separates the poor and the rich
Just take steps of faith
And be intentional

Poverty robs you of your ego
Makes you less of a human
But are people really poor
I guess not, just lazy I think
If you can get your hand *****
You will never lack what to eat
Run from poverty, faster than Usain Bolt
Do nothing and poverty looms

I just hate the coffee called poverty
How can I rent my wife to tourists?
Who does this for Pete's sake
This must be a spell
Is it a marriage with benefits?
Please help me ask these East Africans
How do you rent your wife to tourists?
That women have local and foreign husband!
Do we need to be re-colonised?

Again I say "Tufiakwa"
I don't care your tribe or race
Poverty is a universal plague
And winning starts with the right attitude
If truly you can think enough
That which you have, is just enough
Together, let's kick out poverty
It begins with you...
A red jumper
in the airing cupboard,
thrown over a pipe,
drooping like it had melted.
“Académie culinaire de Toulouse l’enfant”
on the breast in fractured, iron-on plastic.
It was perfect.

Something that wouldn’t be missed.
I took my sister’s wave-edge scissors to it.
I took it to bits,
all but a jagged circle of a sun
full of furry solar storms
of thread ends.

I ignored the red fluff
falling slowly
like so much ****** snow,
mixing into carpet fibres
under my bare feet.

And my heat
Disperses into invisibility
everything but the colour,
like any memory will.


-

A green t-shirt,
it looks up at me lostly,
toyishly small,
from some forgotten shop
bought at some forgotten time.
A childhood comfort still smiling
but not soft anymore.

The front’s all robots smashing apart tower blocks
with tin pincers and laser vision.
People’s screams of indicision.
Staticky speech bubbles,
broken car windows,
exclamation marks.

And a Marilyn monroe type
in the midst of the fray,
bra half-undone,
hand cupped to her mouth
Calling into some furious colonised sky
into which I pinned my sun.

-

A cornish cream baby grow
with grandmother stitched flowers
hours of sowed leaves.
A polka dot horizon
and an orchard's evening shadow
from a lifetime’s washing.
It showed.

So I sowed my mechanical horrors
and it’s crimson fear atmosphere
onto the pastel world.

And now it’s all there.
A poem about how we attach every new experience onto how we see the past and how that might change our feelings of what the world is.
Default African,
Yes I am,
And a disgrace for that matter,
Yet African with Katekism,  
I am supposed to be,
Come rain, sunshine or high waters,
I have betrayed you Africa,
I have 'back-stabbed' you in the face,
And spit rotten phlegm in the wound,
Giant mother,
With this badge of slavery I now proudly wear,
**** me.  

Never have I washed my father, Or mother,
Never have I washed my grandfather or grandmother,
Neither of these have I ever dared looking after,
Yet today,
I assume total custodianship and curator-ship,
I take care of some grandfather and grandmother,
Somebody's father,
Somebody's mother,
Somebody's grandfather,
Somebody's grandmother.  

Only yesterday I was told,
Your father and mother passed away last year,
And so did your brothers and sisters,
And they were all buried like dogs,
Their burials were the talk of town,
How could you let that happen,
How could you,
And I am these enermies' comfortable door mate.  

My grandfathers were colonised,
Because of our rich land,
And now I have been extensively colonised,
Because of their pound,
Because of wanting to be a Westerner – overseas,
Away from you,
Continent of respect and dignity,
Continent of dance and song,
A continent pregnant with untold tales.  

My sick mind has been colonised,
Graduating me into a nefarious modern commercial slave,
Just but an echo of an old tune,
A worse slave than my ancestor,
The Kunta Kintes,
I am a cheap voluntary slave,
Who has been gratuitously deserted by his values,
The African values.  

I stand accused before myself,
I am a cumbrous culpable default African,
An African who has lost his ebullient Africanness,
A charlatan ******* African on a detour,
A dismantled, shameless self destroyed pimple,
A nauseating counterfeit second hand African,
An extraneous stain on Africa's underwear,
I am of as much value to Africa,
As is an over- used ****** to a  filthy growth point *******,
Regrettably, that is the African I have become.  

How I wish I washed my father and mother,
How I wish I washed my grandparents,
How I wish I took care of them,
The wish is killing me badly,
I may as I have  run away from you Africa,
But never from Africanness,
Litres of your blood flows in body pipes,
I am because you are,
I am a default African.
I gause now it is clearly visible
Money makes the world go round…

Majority would sell their soul for the love of money
The money that would only last for their generation

Being creative is not a sin…
Copy and paste can cause damages that would take several decades to fix
Engineering was the for the reason
Though poor engineering design can cause some damages that can be redesigned and modified

You let it go and you will suffer
You intervene you are wrong you will be assassinated
You spread the word and get ignored…

Colonisation still exist Indirectly…
Now it’s even worse
Colonised by private individuals because he can afforded
They land were they can jus like a cat

They get to be protected
People get to be question and uncertainty answer are the…

Capital city road are in a mess
Foreign country benefits
The community suffer
Fuel price goes up at the same rate as traffic congestion

Closing all the freedom of travelling to work
Depression gets agrivated
Financial strain becomes a norm
Fools are enjoying the fruits

The greedy are on holiday
The investors are making more deals
The official know the bribery language better
The nation is falling down

The grow rate is stand still
More and more labour strikes takes place
The economy gets dragged on mud

Consciousness people are disappointed
Anger is boiling
Crime is going to increase
Drug use is a norm

Opportunist are flying like scavengers
Poor government is a shame
It also affect those who are not political
Gaye Jul 2016
In the monsoon,
I walked colonised streets
trying to befriend a city,
forged fields and bright street lights,
they often vanished inside my eyes
to see happy children on beaches;
glass ceilings shattering to find a sky,
that broke down abruptly
to weep on my shoulders.
I swam in the rain
only to meet those children at the beach.
They roofed me under white curtains,
for the Witch might try to grab me,
plait my hair
and take me back
to her hall of circus.

Every flower,
every breeze,
every wounded bird in a city
are part of a folklore
where minstrels live,
they all sing me
back to beaches.
Nhlanhla Moment Jan 2017
I wanted to head to the African Union to speak my mind
So I wrote a letter so they could respect my kind
Then I thought maybe if I go to the paper they'd hear me out
Seeing as the newspaper is the bastion of the spectacle
But I got hysterical, as they told me I should come back later
So I voiced my thoughts and pulled out a hailer

Here's the story, the revolution is in labour
Africa is a child who needs hospice, he needs to go to theatre
But many would turn a blind eye so maybe this is a show that should play out in theatre
But maybe that wouldn't be enough so a black story should be told on a white sheet called the cinematic theatre
African child get your 3D glasses and take a moment for some introspection
This is a dedication which needs intrinsic meditation
So instead of fainting, here's a painting
Do you still treasure your body like the gods said you should?
Do you remember the time when the San were working on wood?
Sailing the seas and they would later be called the Grimaldi
They could sail the seas don't believe the whitewashed folly

African Child do you remember your clesetial roots?
Or have you been embossed in the culture of Timberland boots?
Do you still grow your hair for your follicles are receptors like an antenna
Or has the weave been weaved into your scalp so much that you only see white tapestries
Your afro was your beauty and now all you have in your head are glued and knitted seams
Martin Luther had a dream but the only colour that succeeds seems to be the one that gleams

Are we to remain a colonised progeny and have amnesia when it comes to our galactic ancestry
Yet we're quick to receive European ideologies
Soon after that we earnestly accepted American anthologies
And yet we know little of our African anthropology
Have the forgotten ancestors ever received an apology?
For accepting foreign religions and capitalist industry

But no they have all been reduced to slaves, what of our chiefs and sages?
No a millennium African would be quick to skip those pages
Instead we find wisdom when we're in cages
Our ancestors we've put in a box and that's not our original coffin
Through the coffers of the soul you see them in your past lives and they have been trapped in an X-box
Yes they are animated and we are left mentally incarcerated in the television plasma box
You would remember that many who still held the truth were given small pox

So I say on this day, make things of clay
And stage your play of our beginnings - breathing in sun rays
Hold onto to your dread locks for some dread that that so many uneven black threads can lock
Made to believe that whiteness is intelligence and blackness pestilence
Well spell out your excellence in trance states and let them call it deliverance
African child, wake up, the planet needs you
You have been the seed Alkebulan
Way before Scipio Africanus canned us
Rid yourself of these heinous cancers
Hear them the Martian chanters
They are ululating calling out all ascended masters
We feel the sacrifices of the yajamantas
We are one with nature and we bleed with the sun
Rise and grow to unite the world for beyond complexion we are one.
English Jam Jul 2019
Writer's block in the Old West
Sexually repressed
Tumbleweed blew dust
Nomadic, full of lust
It's only getting worse

All the cowgirls seem to like me
More than I love myself
I think I need help
All the cowboys seem to love me
More than I care to admit
Wrickety-split

Silver horses, bloodstains
No direction, no aim
I'm walking in circles, not steady
Haven't I written about you already?
I'll be back by the next verse

All the chiefs seem to love me
As I colonise the frontier
This town is so queer
All the native girls seem to like me
In their teepees
Though I disagree

Sheriff, colonise me
I'm better off dying
Hide before I forget
Ride into the sunset
Carry me in a hearse
There's a snake in my boot.

Or is there a boot in my snake?
nivek May 2014
a whole side of the hill
has been colonised
by a friendly tribe of daisies
Sam Hammond Sep 2018
Well, that's it, my brain is now rotten.
Lost in its fungus are feelings, forgotten.
A spur may occur, on a scarce blue moon,
Of energy telling me I'm back in tune,
But really it's vacant and harsh little lies.
Synapses shooting a brain as it dies.
Misery fruiting on mould colonised
From grey matter, shattered behind fading eyes.
Now just a hollow man, left with no bang,
Merely a whimper with such little whim.
Watching as slowly the old me is lost
While filling the blanks with a bad pseudonym
And sealing them over with mushrooms and liquor,
Though quicker and quicker the struggle gets bigger.
Sick and then sicker, from fluid to rigour.
Stuck in the mould, now forever disfigured.
we hang on to that ****** thing

hoping it will bring

us luck

does it?

does it?

the **** it does.




shove it,

don't hang on

don't love it




In these vaults where faults are bound to overwhelm me




the Skipper's all at sea and we are all alone




a helmsman with no land or home to tide him by

a reason only if to

if I want to

want to

die or why it has to be this way?




An Oracle would bid me sit and say.

'why hang on at all

Rome built in a day will fall'




it all takes time.




Time is just a cross to bear

a watch to wear,

a moment

dare we look?

dare we

do we give a **** about that thing?




what thing?




I've moved on away from that thing




that thing never did me good

I thought it would,




at one time

I thought the World was flat




that thing

circumcised my brain




colonised my train of thought




I need a ripcord

a Gordian sword




I found it in the word.
Craig Harrison Sep 2014
In the year 3000
will we still be here
living on land
or below the sea.
Will we have
driver-less cars
robot people
a colonised Mars
where will we be
in the year 3000
anneka Jan 2016
babe, baby,
flush them out
once they'd call us the
colonised, the lost -

together we are
pressed paper, labyrinth
i think in phrases,
phrases and
your thoughts,
calculate

love, lover,
grasping at straws
tell me of how she
broke you before, i'll
show you my own
scars.

(A.H.Z)
Like expensive perfumes
That make Kings and Queens
Have the scent of royalty
You have colonised me with your intoxicating fragrance.

Just as the presence of the unicorn makes a rainbow
And its beauty leaves lasting memories,
You have made a road map
That always makes me admire you in silvered mirror.

Like diamonds and gold, so precious and important
you are more important than the blood that runs through my veins

The fountain, lamb and ivory
Symbolises purity and hope,
You have become my symbol of life.

Just like the stars that twinkle radiantly
And the sun shines glamorously,  
So your eyes is like that of an angel
Making me to ask myself if your father is God.

Just like Grimhilde in Snow White who asked the mirror,
"Who is the fairest of them all?"
I ask my mirror,
If I am legible to enamour in your beauty.

They say true beauty comes
From the inside
But your the symbol and definition of true beauty,
mon coeur bat.
#hope #beauty #love
thymos May 2015
children racing
on their bicycles. somewhere
war in a colonised land.
It's astounding,amazing
like cows we are grazing while the
world falls apart,
I hear them cry
from Kenya to Mumbai
and all points on the dial...meanwhile
we stuff ourselves with food off the shelf and we
don't give a ****.
Twenty first century man can do no wrong just
as long as he lives in the West and the rest?
we try not to think about them
because we are the twenty first century men.

We are selfish,
going back to when we were just shellfish,before
we marched onto the land,before we colonised and
then realised
how big and how grand that we were,but
we'll get there in the end
until then we'll pretend that it's
all tickety boo
but who
are we
trying to kid?
Lilly Gibbons May 2017
A slave, I no longer know of pain,
To easy to succumb,
Wrong you say, it's not a game.
The battles have begun.

Colonised, we seek the truth,
Anywhere but here,
Slamming, kicking, screaming out.
Not knowing what we fear.

Beating keys, an ant-like tune.
Peddling, shores awash with debris.
New story, old story, make it count.
No minute wasted, just be.

A loud moan rising to panic,
Who dares make such noise, then delay.
Return to your stations dear slaves.
Be minions, unafraid, decay.

Sip, slurp, be nothing; now chirp.
The clicks will tell time passes.
Cautious of ants being usurped
Lift your head, nod to the masses.

As I bowed to greet the bed,
Strange thoughts began to fade,
The mob that crowded city streets,
Now lost to another day.

And all I can hear are worries,
The sorrows, the cries hanging 'round.
Echos of distant ambitions.
The haunting, those perilous sounds.

It stood in doorways, laughing.
It reached our subconscious states.
Repressed, it pushes those boundaries,
Destroyed, with little fate.

Plenty arise to follow,
Plenty arise to just be,
Plenty leave life behind them,
Not on my time, not me.
Miguel Diaz May 2016
What is the air breathed in by the millionaire?
The same as inhaled by the slum-dweller?
The monopoly on air is great!
Or imagined?

A false dichotomy, a false pretense,
a logical fallacy, a paradox and contradiction. Linguistic sounds murmured and mumbled by orators and curators.

The breath of life is the worlds most beautiful gift, but also a mundane commodity,
It is in a perpetual state of being unwrapped and re-wrapped,
Transported by logisticians,
Prepared by makers,
Packaged by designers,
Consumed by the user,
Expelled by the waster,
Salvaged by the recycler,
Reminder of our life,
Reminding us of our mortality
Which we so frequently forget.

Breath is without choice,
We are unforced,
We flow the atoms inside us
Which our lungs are built to contain,
But particles need to be expelled.
As all good things must come to an end,
So must the ego we wish to contain.

Nature's masculinity is all too powerful, dominating the global hemisphere. His spheres of influence are enermous and his allies volatile.
Fire, metal, lightning, magma, stone, thunder.

An awesome feat,
We have learnt to harness electricity,
The ecstatic delight,
The shock of wonder,
We are galvanised into apathy,
Wired on our technology,
Device on finger,
We have yet to integrate the complex organic with the intricate artifical.

The technology of air is a great invention, invented by an invisible nothingness, an empty void of silence, a chasm of infitissimal unmeasurableness.
We have yet to harness this ancient element.

As we race about and fulfill our desires,
Humans, thought to be different,
No, we are a microcosm of repetition, a chain reaction, a catalyst of a parralel universe.

We have created our own branch of nature,
We are a branch hanging off the trunk
Our own pecking order,
We are not elemental isolates from the land which we once grew on.
Diamonds are made from carbon.
Flesh from cell.
Cell from atom.
Interconnected, neural and galactic.
The microscopic projections playing through our planetary minds:
Sharp as the claws of beasts.

The tiger rattles its chains,
Exuding its own glory,
Its notoriety known amongst
The lesser kingdom dwellers.
Is it moral to cease the latters' lives early on, severed by the hand of sentient and intelligent conciousness?

The grand old question proposed by philosophers.
To **** or to be killed?
To live or to die.
War or peace?
Answers and binaries, we rush in attempt to answer both,
The sedate and the anxious professors will philosophise,
Knowledge will reach the masses,
Ignorance remains.

Time will pass and death will come to all of us,
Mortality an unstoppable force,
an unstoppable ticking,
A machine in the clockwork of nature,
A cog that has been inhabited by life,
An abstraction colonised by thinkers and doers,
All on the same trajectory of the unknown.
Powerless and hopeless civillians, grasping and clinging desperately on an immense rocketship,
Fighting for survival.
Are we preparing for a greater good or a we headed into the dark oblivion?

The corporations too - perceived as more powerful -
Know they have land and
Ownership of property,
Exerting their will
In an extravagant and
Flamboyant fashion.
A luxurious and pompous display,
A model for citizens to admire

Sooner than we know,
The invisible does become visible,
The curtains are opened.
Even denyers become believers.
The windows of facades,
To be scratched. Will be clawed.

We lament and count our losses,
But the trees remain grounded,
Roots are always shifted,
Loggers cut down beasts of beauty,
All too common, there are all too many treefellings.
Her presence is sparse and dense.

We raise, we grow and then we prepare and consume.

Is it so strange we do this to eachother when we do this to nature?

In a internation that worships success and scolds failure, how can the failure be allowed to live?
He is at the mercy of the lucky,
he is at mercy to dissaproval,
he is at mercy to mockery.

The air she does not distinguish between worthy and unworthy, she gives lovingly to children of the earth.
Is it not time love ourselves to love eachother and love her back?

Is it much more powerful to imagine utopia than to disdain dystopia?
We are a dusty age that Mother blows away with her strength of love.

We forget her might,
Her fury, her will.
She: more powerful than all of us.
The earth can crack,
The skies will burn,
The seas will flood.

Our might is remembered by historians,
Our strength is revealed through leaders,
Our vulnerability is exposed.
Our secrets are brought to light.

We are as evil the land.
Life lived in the grey.
nivek Jul 2015
I want to be in the graveyard
together with all the dead
the final frontier crossed
bones all crumbled to dust
colonised by long gone worms
I want to be in the graveyard
communing with the ancestors
who know more of life than the living
and fool no-one with any kind of guile
Babatunde Raimi Sep 2019
Oh! Africa!
Let me tell you
About my dearest Africa
The cradle of human civilization
The land of wonders!

Undoubtedly, the second most populous
Of all the continents
Where Gazzeles run to survive
And Lions pursue to feed
In a battle of survival

Let me tell you about Africa
Covering six percent of earths surface
Home to Nelson Mandela
And greats like Fela Anikulapo Kuti

But for Ethiopia and Liberia
We were all colonised
Introduced to foreign gods and culture
In all these occurrence
We never forgot Africa!

170millon of us speak Arabic
130million speak French
With over 2000 different languages
We are the kings of diversity

Let me tell you about Africa
Where we hold the ace
As the hottest continent on earth
Surely, a noble bragging right!

Go back to your history books
Let's set the record straight
Africa is not a country
Neither do we live on trees
It is a blessed and peculiar continent

Let me tell you about Africa
Where our only problem is governance
And corruption reigns supreme
Oh! Africa! My Africa!

Wait a second!
Are you planning a getaway?
Visit the Omo River in Ethiopia
The birthplace of Emperor Halie Selasie

Would you like to track Gorillas?
Then would love it
The Virunga Mountains of DR Congo
It is worth all your penny

The breathe taking scenery
That Zanzizar offers
Will make you relocate to Africa
Surely we are
The real Ministers of Enjoyment

If you want a birds view
Of our beautiful continent
Make it to the tallest mountain in Africa
Mountain Kilimanjaro, Tanzania
It stands at 19,340feet

Kenya reminds you of nature
Cape Town, our most beautiful City
The Mummies and Pyramids of Egypt
And the delicacies of Calabar, Nigeria

It is appointed to die once
But before you do
Visit our beautiful continent
Your life will never remain the same
That your education may be complete
And I hope this inspires you!
Mustafa May 25
My name is Umrao Jaan. I am a Tawaif, an Indian Classical Dancer, Singer
My other names are Saheb e jaan, Nargis, and Anarkali, many names I have
I am trained in fine arts like classical dancing and music by ustaads or teachers

My work was to entertain kings, noblemen and wealthy patrons who visited my court.
My court is known as a kotha in the Hindi Language, my residence and workplace
Here I reside with my family, my sisters in trade and our fellow musicians.
We are financially well off, but what we yearn for, love and respect, we do not get

Trained as artists who entertain kings and nobility, we are sadly now disrespected
Our services now are desired not for their true value but to satisfy desires.
The desires of wealthy men who treat us as concubines but will never respect us
Sadly, the nobility and value of our profession have been eroded completely now.

This erosion started with the British Raj when they colonised India
They never valued our services and degraded us to the level of vaishyas(prostitutes)
The evil that men do lives on after them, and the good they do is buried in their bones
Even after India gained independence, the cultural values of the Tawaifs were never restored
It died with the end of the reign of Akbar, Shah Jahan and other Mughal kings
In this poem, I have attempted to explain what a Tawaif was and to what status Indian Society has degraded them.
A sad state of affairs indeed
Julian Delia Feb 2019
A silence, saliently insisting on its one day of reign,
Reminding you to reflect before you act,
To think beyond what you could gain.

We look back at our ancestors,
Recalcitrant in the face of the British, the French;
We praise their heroics, remember them in feasts,
Yet still, we are divided, brawling like beasts.

Against the oppressor, we stood united;
A colonised nation, struggling for identity.
Master-less we finally became, celebrating independence;
Yet now, we have subverted to sadist deference.

Men in sharp suits and their slimy, convincing faces;
They like to think they hold all the aces,
That they can and will divide and conquer all of the planet’s open spaces.
They tell us what to think, what to feel, what to do, what to vote,
They’ll tell you when to swim or when to sink,
When to squeal and how to heal,
What is true when you don’t have a clue,
And what to quote when you want to sound profound.
They are snivelling, Rolex-wielding, aftershave-wearing ******* with an arrogant bearing,
And they have no issues with asking you about why the *******’re glaring.

So, I suppose, today there's not much choice;
There is a snarling wolf on one hand,
And an angry bear on the other.
When your choice is that bad,
Why should you even bother?

'By any means necessary', Malcolm X would say.
There seems to be no solution,
Excepting a call for armed revolution.
Anarchists and troublemakers, unite;
Time to take down the state,
Like cutting the line to a kite.
So I found this old, forgotten rant of a poem as I'm reviewing my folders, and I decided to give it a face lift, tighten up a few sloppy verses and upload it again. This was written right before the June 2017 election in Malta.
Cause Britain is the one
with all our wealth.
We have
common colonised conundrums.
And you’ll say that it happened a long time ago. My response: Sorry, What The...
Babatunde Raimi Jul 2020
Do you want corruption eradicated?
We need to wake up from this dream called "Niger Company Limited"
Else corruption will fester unabated
With accusations and counter accusations
Today, like yesterday, they tried to bridle the horse
That this also may be swept under the rug
"Na padi padi Government we dey"
Rest in peace to the fight against corruption in "Naija"

This is now a charade, a national comic
With mind shattering evidences rendered
We still found ourselves here, but why?
Of a truth my kinsmen, "There was a country"
These dis-honourable honourable already  shared the country for themselves
Here them shouting "It's okay, it's okay. What is okay, please?
All these drama kings and fainting thieves
"Kpomkpi, una time go reach. Cell na turn by turn"

They fed on our Niger Delta and polluted our lands
Subjected my people to extreme poverty and hardships  
Left our children stranded in white man's lands
Watch, they will soon retreat to a "Closed door" in a bid to sell us a dummy
Sometimes I crave for a Ghadafi to sanitise our lands
I think we will just be better of if we are re-colonised
The mud is thrown up and now it will stick
What a master stroke from a student of Robert Greene

Today is a sad day in this animal kingdom we call "A country"
The screen play today is epic and deserves an oscar
When they eat our yams they are healthy
When it is time for accountability they feign sickness
As I play and recall the scenes of today in my head
I fear for this generation and the one to come
Before you retire tonight, please say a prayer for Nigeria
Because from the beginning, it was not so...
Africa's own Sep 2018
I teach my raven about black supremacy. undoing the propaganda of the white devil, which colonised and prisoned the minds of my raven.

My Jesus is black as the first man. My Jesus is black for his righteousness, my devil is white for his wickedness.

My Jesus doesn't have blond hair nor blue eyes, instead his legs reflect the skin of my raven.
My raven are never burnt by the blazing sun instead it reflects its shiny coat through rays.

Black is the origin of mankind.
Black is the original form of mankind. Critically unearth the truth behind the lies that they teach my raven about Black supremacy.

Tell them Black is supreme
Tell them Black is not a bin
Tell them Black is a superior human being, the real human bieng for his kindness and boldness

— The End —