Laolu's Poetry Cove

The rising sun brings incessant joy to its subjects
As love flows through pangaea like molasses
Alas, all is not harmonious
The foreigners have brought their leprosy overseas
Joy turns to trepidation
Jubilation to unease
The collective spirit will not be dampened
Distress shifts to fury
W e rebel in anger, unaware of the danger
At last our terminus is reached
Forced to labor, outcries ignored
W e must remain vigilant, we must fight
It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light
At last we are free, we play and we scream
At last able to live Dr. King’s Dream
And as we grow, beautiful black girls and boys
We awaken our beautiful Black Joy

“I pass death with the dying and birth with the new-wash’d babe, and am not contain’d between my hat and boots,
And peruse manifold objects, no two alike and every one good,
The earth good and the stars good, and their adjuncts all good."

–Walt Whitman: “Song of Myself”

For a fledgling, epochs fly by
With no remorse for the sustenance taken from adolescence
With time their tides ebb and flow
Existence and purpose crescent along
Adolescence and Adulthood meet in an assembly of values
One grows reminiscent of their babe days
And still he treks along the grain of the terraform
When will the pain end? Purpose is not quickly found
When will the work end? Completion is not instantaneous
When will the incessant caretaking come to its fateful end?
With the coming of the new, so too the old must go
As one star fades, the next must glow
As the new springs, the greats of yesterday shall fall
As even the greats set out small
As the summer comes to a close, the start of winter draws near
An inverse relationship to last forever.
And as one makes their last stand on a chosen hill
Another begins their journey in an undulation
And so again, the page refreshes
With the fading of strength, too comes wisdom
As the blade sharpens, along comes inexperience
A cycle old as time

A pond torn by need
Essence raised through affliction
Phoenix rise of ash

A man, once broken, now unbowed
His spirit gifted, his courage endowed
Agony trickles through his senses, like raindrops do
Shadows gather in his thoughts, like dew on leaves anew
History's lessons, painful yet true
No essence reborn, but strength to pursue
Demons may fall, yet ghouls still march
Our hero restless, with mind so arched
Achilles dons his cape so bold
His mind free of all distortions old
The Styx washes away his mortal tethers
Vigor returns to his bones, like the lion's feathers
From cinders of a broken man, a fateful fable forged
As foes fall away, promise returns to a land engorged
Pushed forward by fate, an altruist stands tall
His journey's not done, for there's still more to enthrall.

The story starts with rhyme and elation
Until rapacious men corrupt the nation
Beautiful people led to the trading station
Unaware of the greed and exploitation
Our forgiving hearts hold no room for hate
Ancestors long gone, now at heaven's gate
New chapter, we can change our fate
Shots fired, bodies strong but minds tired
Girls and boys struck down by pawns
Our dreams of a better day carry on
What did we do to deserve this fate?
Who did we anger?
We pray for better days, is it too late?
One day will we be equal, all races free from danger?
One day, we hope to see a new dawn
Where we're all united, as one
Until then, we'll keep fighting on
Holding fast to hope, until our victory's won.