following Lumumba’s assassination
exploitation of the Congo went on
undeterred by democratic facade
neo-colonial puppets with european spines
to neutralize the Black Liberation Army
we were g(r)ifted with Black aesthetics
Black mayors and Black billionaires
they offer intersectional excuses
for blood splatter murals downtown
pigs kept their mercenary commissions
under the guise of cultural progress
New Afrikan Independence is shrouded
in ahistorical attachment to race
the pot called the kettle African
the kettle joined the military
to prove its loyalty to the president
in other news a leaf is still a leaf
falls eventually as all empires do
if i continue the chores my ancestors set
one day i’ll leap into piles of dried legislation
or teach that aspiration to my young before
passing them the torch and gasoline
the more regimes change the less
we remember there’s an enemy
camouflaging in the branches
Darius Simpson is a New Afrikan writer and performer from Akron, Ohio who believes in the dissolution of empire and the liberation of all oppressed people by any means available.
Part of our 2024 Fiction Issue.
