us not ignore the testimony
of our own misdeeds
and impair our reasoning with
a stupid reliance on prophecies
of these new Seers
In the early days of the craze
for negation of our Past
did we not buy a coffin and celebrate the burial
of a Brother who still walked
this Earth with us?
did we not burn his barn and allow a clown
to rape his wife
before our very eyes?
What fate befell the Child implanted in her womb?
Did we not refuse to attend the ceremony of his Birth?
And when he died so young of kwasbiorkor
how many wept for him?
Who can tell where they are today?
the old priestess
who read our future in a calabash
the unhappy poet
who composed a dirge for the ceremony of our Birth?
Did we not twist their jaws and drive them
beyond the boundaries of our dreams?
Now we ask our mothers to confirm
the things our grandmothers say.
We beg our children to tell us who we were.
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