he screamed truth at the walls
raging
a Joshua of trumpet throat
cutting
carving
sculpting cold stone
into forms fluid
curving
& triumphant
bulging the box
with his sphere of power
influence
dwindling
to fierce whispers
sparking
igniting the dark
echoing the light
within his enforced night
beneath the dungeon
of his captor’s imagination
he
another dark sun
unbowed
unclouded
and now, by self-doubt
unshrouded
once fearful of peering into his own eyes
made comfortable with the lies
but wisdom survives,
and in his solitude
from attitude
he forged resilience,
acknowledging flaws
& built upon experience
harnessing pressures crushing his soul
he compressed his black
and became diamond whole
his moon did not share his crypt
she faced her deadly destiny
pounded with predictions of her doom
and of those from her womb
yes, she cried
but a righteous rage built up inside,
and soon her captors found her fortified,
for even in darkness
without books,
she learned from her dreams
listened to ancestors’ whispers
awakened comatose memories
of warriors and builders
undefeated
reborn within
his heart became a fist
he ceased his screaming
harnessing his surging passions
frustrations
the constant inundation —
of brain beatings
mind manglings
& rapes of his sodomized heart
slowly shrank into unconscious white noise
surf feebly splashing his promontory will
he stared into the night
his gaze turned within
his rage focused,
he felt the ritual begin
his words of truth
outrage
rebellion
transformed
echoing chants of power
immune to ice
calling the knowing
his fight was not without
or without price
but within
inside his skin
he embraced the night
did not miss the light,
knowing the sun was not lost,
just resting beyond the horizon
and, like him, soon to rise
her heart felt his fire
her soul his embrace
bound by blood
will
& spirit
they knew distance could not divide them
incantations of doom could not defeat them
only they could conquer themselves
lost in labyrinths of lies and deceit
drugged on powders white
& powers vain
the once mighty had been broken again
finally,
his will breached the box
her heart reached through the wall
in union
they stood
free
bathed in midday sunlight
in the depths of midnight
steeled in their knowing
unabashed in their glowing
an embrace at once deeply Black
& a brilliant beacon in the night
by
jamal
ali
© 23 january 2002
