Anu Soneye’s Poem appears in the June 2019 Freedom Magazine. Download it here.

Black, the Savage shade of a bounded race
turns dead sketches into breathing art.
Night, the cool every man craves comes in the dark
when the sun sleeps and the moon wakes
The melody- The sounds of native drums;
Vicious, thumping and oomphing in metered patterns
rhyming into steps of restless feet.
The withered skin, aged by marks of history- as the natives sing old songs of oneness.
The cracked lips battered by metal chains
still speak hope in harmony.
The gongs in the splendor of sonorant tunes whisper thinned tales of many beginnings;
From slim plates, the sweetness of joy pour.
Tonight, the black shines with many stars.
From pots of putrid pasts
are born the beauty beneath the black.
More, we taste sweetness as

one, more and more.