Mr. Africa Poetry Lounge!
A Versified Voyage
Another boy was raised at the Hudson River
With a firm Earth Sign-
A promising limb on an African tree-
And The Thinker, his archetype,
Sat beneath his unburdened brow.
24 seasons later,
The child scrutinized
The Lost Tribe's Jerusalem-Harlem.
And Like East 127th Street's Shakespeare,
Langston Hughes,
The boy embraced his race.
At 54 seasons,
The boy became a knowledge-consuming entity
Learning about African-rhythmic prose, odes,
Bantu, Zulu, Malinke, Yoruba,
South of the Sahara songs.
The child traveled
The geography of his mentality
With David Diop, Dadie,
Césaire and Senghor,
Poets who created the seeds
That became Afrocentric breeds.
To the boy,
These poets were sight-igniting keys.
By plying those keys,
He opened doors to vistas
Where Black people were birthing
A renown-bound future.
Eluding adult's brimstone-sizzling stress,
Beneath a dirt-antiquated tree,
He studied comfortably
And saw the spirits of the pundits.
At 55 seasons,
Wherever there was a pencil and paper,
He was runner-in-a-race-inspired-
Those were his sight-igniting keys.
By plying those keys,
The child and a page converged
And an aged versifier emerged.
Written by Bob McNeil
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