BUTTERFLIES I N THE DARK

WAR

"Never think that war, no matter how necessary nor how justified, is not a crime"

Ernest Hemingway

Today father in his guise as an amazing leader organised a war memorial in memory of the three wars that have made and broken this country. It's funny to think that thirty eight years from the civil war, seventy nine from the world war two and one hundred years from world war one, we still have the guts to stand up and raise arms against each other. Why remember people without changing a thing?

The war started on 1st September 1939 which is today and the theme I white representing peace and obviously being forced to go, my first public appearance and am going to present a poem( how unnerving). My dress arrived today, it's made of white lace with an opening at the back, and Irene says I look like a queen but I had a bigger task of deciding which poem to present. I decided to choose an African poem specifically , this is by Ivorian poet Bernard Dadie;
I GIVE YOU THANKS MY GOD
I give you thanks my God for having created me black
For having made of me
The total of all sorrows,
and set upon my head
5 the World.
I wear the livery of the Centaur
And I carry the World since the first morning.

White is a colour improvised for an occasion
Black, the colour of all days
10 And I carry the World since the first night.

I am happy
with the shape of my head
fashioned to carry the World,
satisfied with the shape of my nose,
15 Which should breathe all the air of the World,
happy
with the form of my legs
prepared to run through all the stages of the World.

I give you thanks my God, for having created me black,
20 for having made of me
the total of all sorrows.
Thirty-six swords have pierced my heart.
Thirty-six brands have burned my body,
And my blood on all the calvaries has reddened the snow
25 And my blood from all the east has reddened nature.
And yet I am
Happy to carry the World,
Content with my short arms,
with my long legs,
30 with the thickness of my lips.

I give you thanks my God, for having created me black,
White is a colour for an occasion,
Black the colour of all days
And I carry the World since the morning of time.
35 And my laughter in the night brought forth day over
the World.
I give you thanks my God for having created me black

Much as I was terrified to present this to the public, I did my best and I had a number of hollers and ululations in the crowd signifying that maybe I the illegitimate child had made something useful.

Maybe others will learn from me that maybe Hegel was wrong when he said "history teaches us that man learns nothing from history." I learnt something and that's a start.