By Maya Angelou
Homo sum. Humani nil a me alienum puto!
I am a human being
Nothing human can be alien to me!
This statement was made
By Terentius Afer.
Terentius was a slave,
Sold to a Roman senator
Freed by that senator.
He became
The most popular playwright in Rome.
Five of his plays
And that statement has
Come down to us from 154 B.C.
That man
Not born white or free
Or with any chance
Of becoming a citizen
In the Rome of his day,
He said, “I am a human being.
Nothing human can be alien to me!”
I have ingested and digested that statement.
It activates me
And motivates me to say,
I’m yours
Haiti
Yours …”