Songs of Anisha
“Colourless Rainbow,”
by Senator Ihenyen
…the ink of this pen
splashes a song – not of the seduced screams
that blazed in the soul of nights under the fire of the moon,
melting the melodies of dance,
so nostalgic! But of our dying voices!
The ink of this pen splashes a song
not of gods and goddesses; ancestral rituals and spirited masquerades
of the glorious past! A song, not of prides of lions and black leopards
that roared on ancient hills and mountains;
not of graceful gazelles that leaped to drink
of blue waters and hunters that brought elephants home on their heroic shoulders!
But the fire that kindles the spirit of the moon
in its virtuous fullness and awakens the drums of the heart for a new dance!
The ink of this pen
splashes a song crowned in thorns!
The song of the tears and the blood drowning hearts!
Drowning our dreams! The song of the arrows of blood tearing our world apart!
The song of butterflies kissing dunghills
and pigs grunting on the blossoms of our dreams!
Leaders in their gruesome generosity drinking honey and licking palm-oil
from the broken caabash of the hungry
whose mouths feed on their own ashes and drink their own tears for peace!
The ink of this pen
splashes a song of a lost race yearning for identity
in the darkness of a moonless night!
The song of a race who does not know who she is!
a colourless rainbow!
…and so, if the pen of this poet pierces
like an arrow to the heart and words of truth wound your pride,
I plea, let your boiling blood rise and gush! Let your trickling tears burst and flow
down your eyes like the ink of inspiration
splashing a song of peace
a song of love
a song of dignity
a song of hope
to paint this horizon of a colourless rainbow
with the colours of our undying dreams…
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