A raven's affirmation

Occupy me not, heavy is this heart but, free of you it is
Lie to me again for I see your bubbling wretch of falsehood,
the loftiness of truth upheld by lies
Foolish are you to have threaded a damned life
For you are a running fool and I meet you with a cliff
Fall into oblivion, fool another fool, I am shield of the wiser

You recede from me into a night of African dreams
Farewell is your love in a tear slowly shed
Evaporate silent breath

O lesson opportune, close not what beats within,
the heart too must learn to fail
And just as refused to be, fooled I am in confidence
made clear today by the raven's knowing eye
Hear rising my intuition, severing your blond lock
Brain of a new vision, heart of a story lived, what a task is thine,
Within your beat still strong

To men certain whispers of myself bequeathing
but that affection me more strongly contemplating
To another rarely offering
Loathe you not, for it is with you my heart grew wise
And without you it dreams of something more

An ESL Kindergartener's Rendition of the Bubble Gum Song

Exhausted, late, sticky. “Good morning everyone, how are you?”

A unanimous response, “I’m pine, thank you, how are you teacher?”

A smile. “How about we start with the Bubble GUM song today?”

“Yeah!”

CD in player, Track 9. Play. Wait.

Bubble bum, Bubble bum, chewy, chewy, chewy, chewy, chewy, Bubble bum

Bubble bum, Bubble bum, chewy, chewy, chewy, chewy, chewy, Bubble bum

I LOVE it, I LOVE it, chewy, chewy, chewy, chewy, chewy, Bubble bum

“Again?” Yes, again.

African

"I am an African, not because I was born in Africa but because Africa is born in me."

-William Easterly

As an ever-searcher seeker of universal truths one thing has recently become clear. Some things are not true because all of humanity depends on it, some things are not true because the ways of the world have made it so but, some things are true because you grip to its verity with such unrelenting belief that a million years of history couldn’t make it false. If this is religion, so be Africa. If this is love, so be Africa. If this is truth, so be Africa.