I am nobility
The Griot of the Mansa of an empire
Tell your minstrels in their burnt cork garb
That conscience speaks a nightly vigil
Tell them the colour of coal
Has never been my skin
But the bluff of the blind
The soak of their sins
Tell them that a hunter fell
By a scorpion’s sting
Tell them
As they pillaged, enslaved and tortured
That the brightest stars and suns are birthed
In the darkest nebulae
Tell them that these suns shine
Unbridled by hemispheres
In a stallion’s fury
Tell them of God’s justice
Written in eternity
Aaishah Mayet was born and bred in the City of Gold, Johannesburg, South Africa. She currently works in the Healthcare sector which, for her, has bridged the frontiers of our shared human experience. As a self-confessed bibliophile of many years, literature remains, at once, her teacher and her sanctuary. Her works include Haiku published in the Lotosblute, as well as poetry published online in the Agbowo Limits issue, Poetry Potion, Active Muse and Amaliah.