JUNGLE FEVER

We danced merry
With our toes polished
By the rivers of grace
Words exchanged in moon light
The night whose face we touched

We sung by fires wild
Our voices echoed by owls
With sweat and dust
Our hands we thrust
In airs of sweet taste
Where we bathed till the break of day

We cried and tried
Tears upon our cheeks dried
The moment smiles bore plagues
Blood diluted in the sympathy of false tongue
Oh how we bled
To witness the chapters of our youth
Torn in the struggles of empty speech

Through death we laughed
With chains around our necks and ankles
Choked by the cold
As we watched more of our kind
Dumped in seas

We now laugh
For we are still chained
We still get dressed in foreign policy
Our minds baked in institutions white
We are but an offspring
Whose conscience bears diaper rash

We can now have the last laugh
As we watch our sons slaughtered like cows
In wars whose origin were not our own

We can now have the last laugh
As we watch our daughters sex traded
In pursuit of a higher life

We can assume the position
Of fallen slaves whose foot prints
We tread upon
Perhaps our children will laugh better

We can pretend for long
But not with these chains
Around our minds and tongues

For in the end
All return to dust
But the glory of our might
Lingers in old folk songs
To be sung moons after we have passed on.