At my conception
music was embroidered into my soul.
A tapestry rich in rhythm is woven
through me threading in and around guts
and knitting bone and blood to spirit.
There-from, a wellspring of inspiration
fizzes continuously like a fuse wire
buzzing toward its dynamite.
Thrilling, ragged rock is
stitched into me,
mending frayed membranes;
tones of the blues as smooth
as melted chocolate ooze
like silk, sewn through veins and brain.
Arias and airs murmur
their dulcet expectations.
Musical exhilaration
is as normal as my darned pulse.
And so I will sing so long as I have breath,
and when playing I will patch
my meaning into all of you.
To unpick the thread,
weaved as it is through
my African heartbeats,
would kill me dead.
The words of Peter Akinwunmi (Peter Ak'i) 