For the Brazilian Redwood
Part I
I was always tall like my father
I imagined that I could paint the sky with my existence
A simple samba in the wind caused my insides to laugh with glory
The healing of the Kusumba in my belly
a balm for the world in every exhale
My Papai said to me “Eu sou o Rei” you are a mighty king a soldier and that holding the truth in my limbs did not end when the sun got too tired to smile
My father was a wise man and it showed like rings of fire beneath his reddish gold skin
My mother taught me how to hum praises that calmed even the uncertainties of new life
She was a giver
She taught me the Kusumba
she said:
Mae Terra!
Mae Terra
Obrigada, obrigada
para a nossa existência.
vivemos para levar a cabo
o que estamos e quem somos
para voce’
para nos
para eles
amem’
I never understood her until the day they came
in the innocence of morning
My 16th birthday!
They came
Like loud drunken monsters with steel souls
They came &
ripped my mother’s Kusamba right from her belly
I heard her scream for my father
His Semba interrupted by the stillness of a cracking atmosphere
She fell right in front of me
I could see the life pour from her side
her praise searching for the heavens
her arms waving with desperation to the sky
Mae Terra! Mae Terra!
She cried
Her screams hushed by hacking blades
her healing body laced in chains
Taken slave to THEM!
Those we prayed to BE for!
Mae Terra Mae Terraaaaa!
She cried
Smoke filled the treasure of her lungs
Fire destroyed her gift to the world
My Mother’s song left blackened and empty with nothing left to give
I was frozen in fear
Frozen in prayer for the world around me
Giving praises so loud the sky began to bleed in transparent agony
my father and I
We danced
Danced that night in the mutilated face of God
We sang with arms aching of praise to the heavens
Mae Terra! Mae Terra!
Obrigada! Obrigada!
Mother Earth, Mother Earth
Thank You, Thank You
For our existence
We live to carry out
What we are and
Who we are
For you
For We
For THEM
Amen.
-Lovve
“In the end we will conserve only what we love. We will love only what we understand and only understand, what we are taught. - Baba Dioum