James A. Atkins, "The First Wireless Message" (1925)
Touched my sunny Afric strand,
Bringing Bibles, beads and rum.
Enslaved my body, left me dumb--
Long ere your learned Nordic sires
Harnessed heaven's flashing fires,
Imprisoned them in copper wires
And bade them do their hearts' desires--
Ere your thoughts flashed with speed of light
Through realms of universal night--
Ere telegraph or radio
Connected Capetown with Cairo--
I communed from place to place
With all the sons of Afric race;
O'er desert silence, jungle hum--
I conquered distance with my drum.
Published in The Crisis, July 1925