O Britain!

A colonized subject's response to the colonizing nation

O Britain!

You came to us and gave us history;

Not that we had none before you came.

You changed its course, you changed us.

Left us different, perplexed, somewhat wiser,

Our minds colonized, ourselves cut to size.

Like hijackers you did spare us once you had had your fill.

But left us yearning for that magic, that stick, with which

You trained us and caned us. You gave us that extra eye

Which made it possible for us to see beyond the well

In which we lay somehow afloat, like frogs, in spite of the plunderers

That came to us before you, conferring on us their version of our history.

You came and made us part of the British Empire,

Raised a kind of fire in our hearts, which only you

Knew how to kindle or cool. We set ablaze our homes

To brighten up the space for your taste. For you

It was a kind of holiday that deprived us of our games, our play.

We smiled to your styled callings, your whims; attended to your lust.

Mingled with the dust whatever hopes we may have built for ourselves.

Now the world is a-changing. The Empire’s fire, is now ash and dust.

Now our brothers, who fell for your ways, are following you

To your home, to London, peopling it with our people; occupying

Every turret and steeple that you built to show off your power.

Do you have the cunning to see them off as once we did you?