A Friend Once Met.... Poem by Abekah Emmanuel

Born in an ambivalent state where hope even seems unwise

The naked eyes of poverty, black too with tears that soaked up light

Sorrow and Lack, his daily companions, stealing the sheets at night

Somehow mere survival reduced his fears, nurtured dreams of life

Like a seed dropped on dry, bare ground, rain visited only imagination

Protected only by dust of his native land, he bore the seasons passing

Harsh winds, though change at least, nurtured not a whit

The future too seemed as black as his own skin, genetic determinism.

His questions raged and copious were his tears, for hope was dying.

Each day seemed a new betrayal from a world of zero sum games

At night he would try to calculate how much pie if any was left

And pondered his guilt for taking crumbs from other mouths.

Yet as moon's feeble vision must yield at last to the light of dawn

So poetry itself brought a new kind of friendship to darker corners

Paved his way to new vistas on smoother stones that don't bruise feet

A friend once met, a future shared, dream realized, others he could help.