A walk I took across the streets,
The cold grounds greeted my feet,
Every move my steps made forward,
In this I withdrew back to the past,
Mourning overthrew our city,
Cries made my confusion,
A great star in the city today felled,
A paradise came under a great siege,
In the past our woes occurred,
Such bitterness we choose to endure,
The siege soon became our bondage,
Our paradise turned to hell,
Strangers in our city killed our joy,
With such a pity I began to weep,
My journey to the past filled me with tears,
Loving hearts interred in agony,
So weak they became in the twilight,
Too far from them was any light,
And they groaned in darkness.
Hero of the paradise was born,
A young star grew in the skies,
Such a strong core was his heart,
Days became decades,
Times became ages,
Young star grew with strength,
In the city he was born,
Our former paradise abhorred his strength,
Sad he felt about our cries,
Provoked, he fought the siege,
With the strangers, he made war,
A ray of hope came from a blue moon,
Our eyes viewed the night skies,
In these we began to see a light,
Struggles marred our nights,
Restless became our knight,
For us he began a great wind,
The wind of change flew in our veins,
Liberty our noble hearts began to seek,
All together for our freedom we fought,
Cries in the rains made our strength,
Wars ranged in the city,
Our paradise we sought to restore,
The nights added a veil to our sight,
To blind our eyes and keep from us, the bliss,
In this a knight arose to save,
Such a rare blue moon we began to see,
In our war, the knight was gone,
Caught in the skies, he was gone,
In the cage he was left to die,
His defiance made light his pains,
The strangers took him in the night,
Bondage became the abode of our knight,
In these we never gave up,
Our struggle ranged till infinity,
As if infinity would not last forever,
An end to all things came,
The morning sun re-appeared,
Beautiful paradise was restored,
Freedom became our story,
Our knight re-appeared in the skies,
Down to us he flew with wings,
On our shoulders he was lifted,
Greeted by the early sun,
Our nights are all interred,
Gone was the veil of darkness,
Bye to our strangers as they left,
Free at last we began to sing,
A bliss sought and found,
The knight grew with ages,
Every passing moment we loved him,
Old the star began to prepare,
A supernova we were certain to see,
In the twinkle of an eye it occurred,
Gone, goodbye Mandela,
In perfect peace, let your soul rest,
Beautiful hero, forever we remember thee,
Such a great knight we would miss,
Gone too soon.
A poem written for the greatest African hero that ever lived, Nelson Mandela(1918 - 2013)