MY POEM TO NATIVE SON AND PRESIDENT ELECT BARAK OBAMA

Defuse me as promised
Contend me
Choose me and the transition into HOPE will become a part of our mission
Do not fear what they told you could possibly be a mirror to the impossible
Do not fear when they tell you that you may fail
Remember you MADE today possible
Paving a version of this vision that began
As a new generation and dissipated
Into a witness of perfection ready for reconciliation
Of the trials and tribulations of a people ready for this moment to come

Find a moment to build your personal campaign to victory
Succeed when your moment comes for you
Focus and recognize the turning point when it happens
Watch them as they analyze your success
Know that they will celebrate you and criticize your journey in the same breath
Trust that you will be the same man you were
When you failed at inspiring the person
You wanted most to inspire

We will soon understand the feeling of that echo
We will define and defend
What it means to lead the life of rising
From the bottom to the top
To cracking a ceiling of glass
To being 5 generations removed from slavery
To being proud once again to declaring yourself an American, an African, a woman or a man, a Patriot, a part of something greater than anything you ever thought was worthy of being shouted over a rainbow or a mountain top

Today is the day we learned you became President of the United States of America
Today we celebrate in the present tense
We believed but knew not what the definition of the
Ultimate perspective would ever become

But now we know
Now we know that in time
In time you can survive
The hurricane that will come for you
Now you know that in time
That this change in our lives will leave us
Better than we ever were before

Iyeoka Ivie Okoawo 2008