Tuesday, February 8, 2022

Beneath The Baobab Tree

This work pictured here is part of Ghanaian artist Kwame Akoto-Bamfo’s Nkyinkyim installation.

Beneath the Baobab tree,
There is too much pain 
To calculate 
To ingest
Almost to speak of
Too much horror 
To comprehend 

And yet, 
I listen 
To their salted tears
That drift upon the winds 
Across the sands 
In this land
That speak 
from beneath
red clay dirt
The color 
of faded blood
Invisible tears 
In this dry season
That call
And speak
That beckon 
with lessons 
Of the past
To teach
These skulls 
In rock-hard clay
Formations 
Of my enslaved ancestry
Living
Beneath 
the Baobab tree

A picture of
The way it was 
Of the way
We were 
And my soul cries 
My eyes bone-dry
Too overcome 
To weep
-John W. Fountain
John W. Fountain standing on the grounds of Ghanaian artist 
Kwame Akoto-Bamfo’s Nkyinkyim installation