Monument to Madness

All Hail
The ignoble
Houphouet Boigny!
His Temple of God
Our glorious poverty
At Yarnoussoukro
This Basilica in the 'bush'
Monument to infamy
Another Taj Mahal
At the altar of our insanity
Where our emptiness is maintained
Two hundred million dollars.

A land:
Two hundred million poverties
And God: already--
Too many houses over rich.
And why this largest costliest
In Africa: the mystery our madness
History's home of histrionics.
One man's Monument
To Self and Infamy.

All Birds do sing
But when It is the Owl
They say it is the witch crying.

Oh Africa:
Make not Notoriety our name
This Foolishness my great sorrow
Are we better Communicants
Or our prayers more sugary?

Every comer our pains of need
Even our souls
Are termites disgorged

Lake Geneva, Switzerland