CLAIMING OUR BIRTHRIGHT HERE...

Water breaks to freedom,
Flows and seeks its  own level:
Rebirth is as hard as crucible steel.

Emerging from the cocoons
Of our distributions,
We voyage backwards
To the womb of our beginnings.

Spreading our dreams on the levees
Of hope---our souls anchored in waters of faith,
We step on the shores of reunion 
As in the matter and manner of Esau and Jacob:

We are
Because Africa is…
Come brethren, let us 
Claim our birthrights here.

The circadian rhythms of time
Weaves us together 
Through the labyrinth of new life---
Each womb having bleed
The pain of joy of our every birth.

With pregnant faith---audacious determination,
Let us trod the paths etched in the mud:
Footprints of ancestors passing this way before us.

Come let us walk
The dried river bottoms
Paved with their bleached bones;
Leaving the dust of marches behind---
Keeping our eyes on the prize, let us soar
To the mountain top; catch the dream falling
And swoop down into the fertile valley before us. 

America became what she is 
Because Africa always was:

Come brethren, let us
Claim our birthrights here.