Abeng Poetry: How To Build A Brick Foundation

                                            Building A Foundation (A Freestyle Poem)

                                       copyright 2016 K. Omodele @TheAbeng

"When we build, let us think that we build for ever." ~ John Ruskin

Don't topple each other down

over indiscretions the dotish

have dished us in the past.

Won't shackle

and bind you

for another's crimes-

her shuffling on like a

visitor in zoo; turning

back on the encaged,

leaving without further thought

-not even, a   lingering

thought    after.

No, that wasn't you!

You're thugging through

determination etched in your brow

Lips pursed! Eyes holding true

heart holding thru

stacking through

thoroughly troweling

building, time piled on time.

Don't punish me for some lame's sins-

those creeps stabbing you deep

daggers in the back; lending

you hearts, then upending your

hopes, snatching I-Do whispers back.

Houses built on sand

inevitably tumble...

But I'm constructing with you,

creating a deep foundation

Erecting deep-rooted pylons,

like Bayna-Lehkem*-shoulder-to-shoulder

-with-Taitu** deep; planted,

taking on Legions of Rome

heads high, defending home

laying bricks in a foundation

mortared with time

poured into time.

*the Ethiopian Emperor Menelik (or Menylek)II

** Empress Taitu was Menelik II's wife. Together the battled against the Italian forces, defending Ethiopia from colonization, ultimately defeating the Italians at the Battle of Adowa.

Three Quotes by His Imperial Majesty Emperor Haile Selassie I (On Universal Brotherhood, Tolerance, Discrimination and Injustice)

His Majesty's words sound resounding empathy and reason the world can use in these hours, in these days, in our times...

"As we do not practice or permit discrimination within our nation, so we despise it wherever it is found. As we guarantee to all the right to worship as he chooses, so we denounce the policy which sets man against man on the issues of religion. As we extend the hand of Universal Brotherhood to all, without regard to race or colour, so we condemn any social or political order which distinguishes among God's children."

"If we raise our voices against injustice, wherever it be found, if we demand a stop to aggression wherever it occurs and under whatever guise and brand the aggressor as such, and if we do so on a wholly impartial basis, we can serve as the collective conscience of the world."

"Let us not recoil in hatred against those who, even while protesting their freedom from bias and prejudice, reveal by their actions that the poison of discrimination has left its lasting effects, and by this reaction, reveal that we, no less than they, are susceptible to that virus which is called intolerance."