Today Mauritius is celebrating the 184th anniversary of the abolition of slavery
And to stamp this day with my own words, I have decided to write a poem concerning all kind of captivity – particularly those that are still going on these days.
To get the necessary inspiration, I’ve plunged myself into the personality of someone that has once gone through captivity, oppression, and hits – mingled with pieces of past-times slavery.
I have written these lines today, and in a great haste. I do hope that it turned out as being a poem filled of hope, and not of hatred.
Skinlike Hooves
Enslavers
Can you hear us
Hidden at dusk
On a mournful soil
Dustied of marooned blood
We dance to your songs
And breath spiteful air
We soar into your atmosphere
And thicken the skin
That cloth our bones
Enslavers
Can you hear me
Look at the scars
You’ve inflicted
To my skin
I wear them like jewelries
That ornate my strong body
Like tattoos of guerrillas
Making me fierce and proud
Amongst all the mightiest of this world
Enslavers
Can you hear me
You have unrooted my soul
From the depth of my core
Hardening my will
Strengthening my bones
Thickening my skin like hooves
Thus enslavers
Since you’ve showed us
Captivity
Since you’ve showed us
The power of a master
I am now a soul set free
A master to my own
With a body as strong
As the crust of this earth.
