In the past three months, Africa, and the world, have lost three great activists - Dekha Ibrahim, Wambui Otieno, Wangari Maathai

‘There must be those among whom we can sit down and weep, and still be counted as warriors. I think you thought there was no such place for you, and perhaps there was none then, and perhaps there is none now; but we will have to make it, we who want an end to suffering, who want to change the laws of history, if we are not to give ourselves away.’ – Adrienne Rich

the greedy old men
vampires
live forever

the women who restore
rebuild replant
remake
die in their fullness

reeling
in this wild
and senseless
culling, we

grieve with our labor
dream open-eyed
think back
into history think forward
into spaces
we will not un-see

nothing as easy
as comfort nothing
as false as certainty
only our voices
fragments in gale

cross, re-cross
continent to continent
lay down the only
true immortality

songlines
heartlines
power lines that run
on the voltage
of our courage

SHAILJA PATEL, 2011. All Rights Reserved

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* Shailja Patel is a Kenyan poet, playwright and activist.
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