Lines to Fanon I - Jennifer Rahim

You insisted you spoke for your time.

Well, it is now, Fanon. Like foolish masons,

we build on the sand of false hierarchies,

prejudices of all kinds mixed with mortar,

walls erected to divide, not house us all –

strangers to each other.

Listen, the earth is noisy with the hell

of its construction: nations clone democracy

with war, religions sacrifice faith to dogma,

innocence murdered on the altar

of horrid passions.

Carrion time, brother!

No people here, just a sad company of ghosts

huddled together, doors bolted, keeping dry

from the storm of our colossal failure

to love larger than any creed

we venerate or hate.

Pray, imperfect saint,

we finally leap the gate.

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Jennifer Rahim (born 1963) Trinidad and Tobago

Source: Zocalo Poets (from her book Ground Level, Peepal press, 2014)

Note: Frantz Fanon was a revolutionary writer from Martinique