Sous la canicule du Sahel
Et sur les terres arides
Les deux chevaliers
Forts comme Charlemagne
Et patients comme le Christ
Avançaient à cheval
Lequel caracolaient infatigablement
Pour couvrir le monde
De la saine tunique « nouvelle »

Mais l’ange noir voulu
Que leur besogne s’éteigne
Et que les yeux des leurs
Se couvrent de brouillard

Mais la fin d’une vie
Ne met point un terme
A l’action du défunt

Un arbre qui se fane
Laisse les grains qui poussent
Et le perpétuent

Ghislaine et Claude
Et leur action pour le bien du monde
Qu’AQMI voulut qu’elle soit fade
N’est que tatouage à la Radio du monde

Ode to the Trumpet

The trumpet is a gift of Greece and Rome
Blown straight within the palaces of kings
Then curved into a circle for the wars
And finally folded in upon itself

No one knows when in ******* a hero
Took up a trumpet bold as brass, and said
“Trumpet, I bless you now with Africa”
And made it sing the winds of the Sahel

Layers of nations, cultures, dreams, and art:
The trumpet sings from the musician’s heart

I'm the river that runs dry throughout the year in the Sahel,
I'm the tree from which you cut down to recreate ,
I'm the sun that sets in the west and rises from the East in the wake of the dawn,
I'm the moonshines that light up your darkness when the tears dry up,
I'm the streams along the nile that drive the thirst back to dead waters ,
I'm the blooming white verbana when the ray of the sun hits through ,
I'm the stings that pollinate the spawn seeds on the meadows,
I'm the flakes that form snow blankets concealing the crevasses,
I'm the desert sand that burns and boils through the feet of a poor orphan child during the summer noontide ,
I'm the dirt on your path when the heavy drops hits the sands on a wet spring eve,
I'm earth's concealed treasures you use to raise metal bars to guard your fears,
I'm the stones you collect to raise shelters that trap you together yet awfully apart
I'm life's seeds lashing on travellers of earth to disperse across state lines
I'm the border crossings birds can't see
I'm the thorn that stands guard beneath the blooms of majestic roses
I'm the looming darkness that permits the hunter's prey on the wildebeest
I'm aurora and my light will guide you through the northern lines
I'm the purity of the breeze that slaps your cheeks over the eastern horizon
I'm the eagle swimming across the dark clouds with its might awakening the strength in the weak,
I'm the womb that carries the supposed stains but a new beginning,
I'm the cries of the oppressed coming from the crumbles and the rubbles on a ****** night ,
I'm the hunger that keeps you awake piercing through the slums,
I'm the pain , the sorrow , the tears ,
I'm the broken pieces inside of you ,
I'm the washed out dreams, the stolen future, the lost hope, the dead ends.
I'm the freedom you die fighting for .
I'm the hope that lifts you up at dawn to thrive,
I'm the dream that paddles its way to shore,
I'm the future, as bright as a supernova
I'm the love, the passion, I'm your truth, the reason
I'm the happiness you envision at the end of the line .
I'm nature with all its might, I am life.