I Speak As A Child Of Africa Poem by Eugene Skeef

I speak as a child of africa

strip the bark
of the tree
where my bleeding heart
was buried
before i fled
into the waiting night

moisten it
with the lotion
of yielding memories

string with it a harp
carved from the shell
that split
and spilt its doom
in the backyard
of my innocence

skin with it
the drum
that sounds the gaping wound
of the land
yearning
for the patter
of children’s bare feet

i speak as a child of africa