Bear Market

Breathing statues of obsidian
dressed in bright cloth feathers weave
among the heavy steel oxen and the
unsaddled donkeys with signs on their back.

Everyone is selling something,
and no one is buying a lick.

A thousand cedis won’t buy you a thing, but
a single cedi is worth more than you know.

Chadian beggar children grab the statues,
and plead holding on for their dear lives.
But how do you plead with a statue of obsidian?
These statues weren’t chiseled,
though they look it.
They were born, and they were born hard.

There is no room for the soft in West Africa.

There is barely room for the hard,
when everyone is selling,
and not a single one is buying.

Everything is for sale in West Africa.

That is why the beggars make nothing.
They are selling their misery,
and misery is free here.

The market is flooded with it,
and everyone is selling,
but no one is buying.

-Kegen Dean Benson