The African Storyteller - a poem

I wrote this poem today.

The African Storyteller

It is tonight that we tell stories

Stories of a million people, with glories

For all the stories we tell, we build from our past

A past bleached in the blue rays of sunlight

From afar, the rains come down on us

Bubbles, bubbles, just like a bundle of curse

But those are blessings, cuddling us

Wrapping us in the arms of a crux

I am an African, so I’m a storyteller

From Bamako to Nairobi, there is a storyteller

With millions of stories in his mouth to tell in a night

And if he sits there in Lagos, we will squint

By the stream in that village in Mombasa

A drummer drums a story, through Kinshasa

Hopping along the streets of Kumasi, he rocks and listens to crickets sing

Singing of a village belle in love with a king

I sing of Africa like a singer

Just like Miriam Makeba told stories, I am also as a storyteller like Fela!

With my mind set on the beauties of the continent

For only here in Africa does the desert matter in art

I am an African, so I’m a storyteller

I tell tales to eat. Don’t be sober.

I tell tales and you laugh, I laugh, you cry, I cry, you shiver, I shiver

I’m an African. I am a storyteller. I am a filmmaker.