AFRICAN SONS ( POETRY)

AFRICAN SONS

Once supple, fresh as cucumber
Dark, shining and succulent
Now wretched, Haggard, tattered
Like fettered slaves on African coasts.

Scorched by heat, frozen by cold
Traversing Libya and Italy's Wilderness
Forlorn, foraging amidst the wilds
Danger trailing your dream Land of gold .

Apprentice ladies in the dim light trade
Placed on oath to seal mistress' identity
Standing under lamps on lonely streets
Awaiting customers body for sale .

Conscience smeared for peanut sake
HIV , STDs , stock in trade
Unwanted pregnancies , babies dumped in sewages
Loss of life, dividends of dangerous ventures .

Death's cold lip kissing by some souls
Struggling sojourners strong but sunk
Died unsung, unknown, unmourned
No dirge renderey, no wrath laid.

The knell still sounds far away at home
Pitiable piligrims yet adventuring
Perhaps, they'll escape this gulley that swallows
And reach by luck this land of gold .....m