Thank you Maya Angelou
now gone to be universal ancestor
so glad you leave your words to guide
the people’s hearts away
from hate
to the very best they can be
to become empowered social participants
who see ancestors –
who were the rainbows in their clouds
who paved the way for the people
they would become.
They could not see who they would become
the music they would make
the poets they would foster
the roads they would build
the fields they would reap
the rise of their souls beyond –
the slavery that was theirs
and she says we need to name those
who were our origins
who were the rainbows
the foundation of who we would become
and listening to her wisdom
I name them:
she is Paisa in her village
racked with tuberculosis
and she sings of far off grandchild or bubu.
She never sees bubu when
bubu leaves Papua New Guinea’s shores.
He is a miner in England
struggling to make ends meet
I do not know his name
great grandfather striving –
so his children
can escape this life –
and in the future their worlds will join
and their descendants
will lead the world into
-oneness
where rainbow families dance into
the light.
(c) June Perkins
Gumboootspearlz 