Words

If words describe my face

not shade not shadow

nor contours hue

purple blue, brown yellow

the desire of words I hear

words I seek

I can see beyond words ink

to liberties speak

that are free like the

Nile of blank creases inside my hand

held firm amidst a delta of pains

shaking the hands of words

that grip us voiced

that craft loud full the African jewel

that ever shield

the us and the ancient tusk

of bold gold -black sway

the psalm of found memory

and sound of verse

that ancients retold our gold

that quench of thirst

of that shining burst music

Africa lives re-told

and fingerprints of oral trade

in ancestral resilience

is no longer betrayed

but spread in the diaspora of all words