On the streets of Freetown, poem by Alusine Barrie.

Hope, Where can I find you here?
On the streets of Freetown: by Alusine Barrie
Oh hope! Give up not though
As thy courage worn I thin and saggy
Crossing cycles of seasons you stood my camel
Crossing endless nights of toil convincing
Weakened phalanges to keep
Grinding you bore my burden
Through the dark dank blackholes of corporate Salone sniffing
Like angry dogs of beautiful African huntsmen; nothing
Thoroughly stuffed with fellow prisoners, panting
In a bale of new junk clothes headed for Africa
The young walls of my heart broken, crumbling,
Exiled in my own country
You kept me moving
Oh hope! Give up not though
As thy courage worn I thin and saggy
Throat dry like sweetened rivers of African Sahara of
Deserts lost and thoroughly stripped yet
You kept a slow and steady makambo in the quiet of my mind
Crossing cycles of seasons you stood my camel
Shoes giving up the cool of molten tarmac of days in vain
Perforated by a million stitches of tired cobblers; injections
In the unforgiving streets of Freetown, you
You kept me moving
Wide-eyed kinsmen drawing down faded curtains of hope; waiting
Reluctant fruits of a tree so well tended
In a society, had I known better
Not to trust your wisdom
So give up not though
Thy courage worn I thin and saggy
I trusted to follow your hand
Like a blind man in the unforgiving streets of Freetown
Where hope is choked to death
I fulfilled my own end of the bargain
Of thousands of years the masters pouring my vessel; of nothing
Worth my while, I stand by you
So ready us our defeated bodies for
At dawn we sail the blues

For every day is its own matrix.

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