Portion - universityofafricanart.org

Go ask the loom;
Few spindles ever touch silk threads,
But you say you never spin mere cotton yarns,
Because your ancestors have royal bloods.
Is that why you must also disdain
Walking on bare floors,
And must weave tapestries
To prance upon?
Is that why
There is no more silk on earth
And we must journey away,
To abodes of esoteric divinities,
Just to imbibe palm wine?
Is that why
They see you that way?
Was the earthen floor
Of your people’s palace
Not good enough for you
That you had to install
Your looms here and there?
Even the sparrow
Does not have the luxury
Of knitting in the throne room,
So why allot all that space
To a complete stranger?
Why grumble when confronted?
Why lose your cool?
The queen certainly has a strange visitor
Lurking under her bed chambers
–Whomsoever does not hide a skeleton