we never saw it
As he looked up
And slowly
As he crawled away
And we only look on
His hands lifted up
And never a coin
In his palm to drop
As they pass away
Friday 23 November 2012
EYES OF THE SKY
All the sky is open to see
Her blouse dropping down her burst
It will remain
Like a mango tree in season
Yet without a fruit
Because all that fell
Has been picked
NO WAY OUT IN LIFE
If you blossom tall like oil palm tree
Your branches they will cut for its fruits
If you are at reach too
Your tenderness will they parade
After cutting into pieces
Thursday 15 November 2012
SMALL AND TINY BUT POWERFUL
Together they fight
Undivided they defend
Attacking when they are threatened
Even if they all perish
To preserve their ancient colony
An important thing in their lives
They are scattered everywhere like the sky
Together they are seen
Colouring the red earth with their shadows
Their strength in their countless numbers
Frustrates the strongest thing to retreat
A tiny thing to behold as they pass through
The creeks and crevices
The stony and rugged terrains
They climb without tiring
For water their souls to renew
Materially not eternally
Dark in colour as they are
New and old they all go
To sap under those ancient pot under the nim
Wherein dwell no enemy
But man who dries the well
The ancient source for survival
The ancient routs tread they
Unforgotten with the changed terrain
Unwanted by man as pest
Unpleasant feeling their sting
When trapped by their army
Their fight on the hilly plains
Far from home
Their dead bodies will lie
Where water from above will fall
Pass a moment of silence
For another batch of equal force
The search to renew their soul
Our astonishment their lives
The life of the termites
So small and tiny, yet
So wise and powerful
Frightens man when they invade
Happy Birthday
Could I ever live
after leaving ajar
the doors of this day?
Could I not have closed
If not shut completely?
having been so gracious , the sun
let it not be said of me
that my eyes did hear
and ears did see
this passing moments
once every 345
the promise
It grew tall and stout striking to sight
The sun shone on its muscular boughs
Sparkling all, its gold unending
The merry birds around danced
Not to touch nor their speech to be heard
Only their dropping showers
Which soaked the faithful tiny greens
At their expense at all times
To grow fresh and green under the dew.
Endure if you can't enjoy
In these moments
Wrapped up in a quest
I must not fail
With bone and blood
To form blood then bone
Smiles like infections
Will pull me along
My stern look
On a worn apparel
Designed to fit even in style
In these moments I recall
Merry not sad did I record
Warm thoughts expressed
By those carved calabash before her chin
Pleasing and possessing to behold
In there, he will swear
In front of all
But will run
Forgetting all
The gown, the ring and book
Think no more
When around you are
And you’ve seen her
There is no way out
Endure if you can’t enjoy to the end
Birthday Twist
Twisting this twenty
Countless coffee cups
Will we willfully wine
This thy true
God given gift.
The line in her hair
In between the black
The shining long hair
She combs even now
Until in between it
The only line is formed
That line drawn not
With ink nor colour
Brings forth her beauty
On her curved cara
Nothing like chance
I have believed nothing comes by chance
And knowing you have buttressed it richly
The unthinkable, what society has caused
And now must fight it with the unthinkable.
Little by little like flies on a sore
I deepen my painful wound
When all I have to do is to scatter them all.
As I review and ponder
Why all this from your question
Why I feel what I feel
Why I do what I do,
There was no answer;
Save a deafening silence.
So near I have come
So near I have come
Yet so far I now am
Fruitless seeds
Dead before they were planted
Though alive when them, they received.
Our many efforts
Like treated water flowing into the drains
Like water falling on the back of a duck
Remain my story
To either bear or tell
Clear indications I can see
Clear speechless acts
I can understand and expect
But difficult to let go
What is not working, your dream.
I lighted this darkness
Even with the faintest light
I sounded its bells in the market
Yet no one bought them
My dead seeds remain in the soil
On the heated tarmac and desert
Where no water is
But the winds
Away their nutrients blow
To distill the only oases, our survival
Rendering us infertile, our land
Oh that this vine will grow
Its wine to smear our chest
Our appetite to cure and men to make
Oh that we’ll not be
Like this land this desolation, our story.
Sunday morning
As majority will awake into churches in haste
On the crowded streets
Others to hawk or sit, their wares aloud
They will preach to the busy street
Their pesewas they will not lack
Those women in falling trousers
Their ankle covered with anklets
In the morning they will rise
Like children from their rest
Crying because they want to return to school
On Sunday morning
They will sell white handkerchiefs
Their groceries or omo tuo
If not at the bar
At home
Fumes like thunder
Thundering fumes
Like one from an old exhaust pipe
Choking dark fumes
Irritating the uncovered eyes
My complains
For peace caused her wrath
My complains
Her displeasure all caused
My intentions
Lost
Her intentions
Unknown
Causes like foxes
Wild fires
Will blaze even more
Lightning fumes
Thundering fumes
Darker fumes of an older exhaust
Bleeding my naked eye
Have I to complain or contain
My five friends
Like a tortoise in race a hare
Not in haste to pass the line
Leaving his pearls unreached
But slowly with it
Like a duck in the falling rain
Steadily through the piercing torrents
My impenetrable feathers will me hide
And not get weary or tired of the fall
Like the ostrich I will not be
To hide my head in the ground
When my whole body
Face the shameful and hurting winds
Like the crab my whole body my home
My protection from the up sky
The unfriendly winds
But not man, his sharpened iron and fire
Like the eagle to fly up high
Up the cloudy sky
And forget not the fall, my precious golden eggs
That I will leave out there
Archibald
The sun will burn above
Like one with coals and faggots
But will blow to cool me
Your evening sea winds
As your thoughts through me pass
Thursday 1 November 2012
COWARDS AND HYPOCRITES
Cowards and hypocrites! They shot at us
Even if their lungs will break
Because they've been made a game and prey.
Anywhere they find themselves
A gun, they cannot hold, nor a sword draw
Yet cowards and hypocrites! Their sound to haunt
They smell of this refrain
Even from the distance
Sheer bravado without guidelines
Makes them think they can do
What they have no idea of.
If they can only hold a gun, or draw a sword
Before changing their situation
May we be cowards and hypocrites.
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