Broken Hour Glass

" Dillemme Africaine "

So it has come to this:
That in the name of progress
Plain folks' dreams may
Rut and drop like forgotten
Plums after the rain -
While chieftains and barons
Frolic and rump on distant shores -
Or that where the bountiful mango tree
Once stood, stands a mansion with iron gates.

A broken hour glass still tells time -
In the present, yet in the past.
And signs are there to see - not to all
But to those whose eyes are free.



Churches and prayer houses every where..
The praise of tongues thrilling the air -
Saints and sinners scrambling for bread
Beneath the unyielding scorcher's eye....
Churches and prayer houses every where
And not a single factory any where !


I see the Mayor and his tribe -
Chewing the fat with crooked hands...
Deals and steals their stock in trade.
Churches and mansions at every throw
While Pedestrian prayers perch in air;
And this is progress for goodness sake?

Heaven can wait when babies cry
And the cup of faith that numbs the hand
Should freeze on the pulpit, where tall tales fly.
In the ranks of pedestrians let one voice soar
With valor let freedom hands seize the day
Not by the barrel  or blighted box -
But with righteous  will, make it known
To the barons of gloom and dreadfulness -
The awful hour of reckoning is fast at hand.

By

Hope Kalé Ewusi ©