SHADOWS AND GHOSTS

Am an illusion

i can be anywhere
on top of the Himalayas
where you reside
coldness is your synonym

life is a dud
sometimes
or is it so often?

or i can stride the Sahara
sunk in its sublimating smother

happiness the fabric
sorrow is but a scratch
on the substance of life

but you can not out-run
your shadow

or can you

© September 2012

LEOPARDS & LEGENDS

You came
of own volition
to this our abattoir
a slaughter house of sorts
or a theatre of dreams
where hearts bleed
and souls drip

94 minutes is all it takes
its all it took
your spots to erase
your claws to recoil

now,
with the roosters silenced
the Ingwe-lets totally Divasified
you bow in a mockery of victory

subdued
you stand in the green regalia
the powerful hue of legendary Mahia

who are you to imagine victory
in a place so secure?

 © September 2012

TRATTORIA

Pollo Carciofi Piccante
oops! and ouch!
i just bit my africanated tongue
pronouncing this order

a yard away she smiles
and nods me on
am encouraged
dear Italiano
the waiter smiles

now let my feet dangle
as i savour the city's jumbled
freedom

outside
beneath the balcony
nairobi friday madness rolls on
unpertubed
unaware of the calm serenity above

Trattoria

 © September 2012

ANNE

Nightness sneaks upon me
like an old man
the allure of youth has but
a bitter after-taste
in my once supple lips

am now all but gone
in a tight embrace with the wind

behold the moon mourns
and the sun blinks
sunset sings a welcome dirge
i am a star
you are a meteorite

welcome to Nirvana

© July 2012

LOVE AFTER LOVE

It is difficult to out-sprint the deer
in love you said must try
i was a marathoner
unable to catch you

so i stood by the forested path
where you left me
holding on to the silhouettes
of dreams deferred

the village destination so close
standing beautiful against the sunset
our eternity grew up into nightmares

now,
good and whole and bubbly again
you take notice i see
but i am a marathoner still

so lets just love from a distance
it is safe this way
nobody gets hurt

a second time at least!
love after love

 © June 2012

80-20 RULE

I stood in the cliff
and smiled my pain away
i walked through the fire
and smelt the sour odour of death

i reached for the star
grabbed receding silhouettes
but drowned in own stupidity

now am amazed,
when all i left for
no longer seems as before
you are lost

we are man
sometimes mad
but man-the-less

like an eel

no one can arrest the wind
not more than squeeze an eel
between our palms

you are man

 © May 2012

THE GRADUAND

Dance my brother, dance.
when the heart wants and the legs tremble
it is time to DANCE

for the ancestors long gone
may be warming your pure blood
into excited rebellion

so dance when you can
brother while you can 
dance brother Wilson
Idahosa Aiwuyor
dance
just dance

© May 2012

DEATH AND BIRTH

Sometimes i smile when it rains
sometimes i cry and smile as well
good days are when i forget the rain
and forget the lightning strike that tore asunder

sometimes i think to refuse to think
just to postpone a reality check
but that's like sailing against the wind

sometimes i want to quit
concede
abandon
curse and dislocate

Generalize.

sometimes every end is a beginning
every beginning is an end
birth and death
or is it death and birth?

am i not ever so happy now!

© May 2012

BIRTH PAINS

pressure knows and grows
from all angles
protuberant ambitions
threaten a generation's cause

our visions of the possible
diminish with every step
towards the mighty exit
derailment is thus imminent

am i discarding
the prophetic visions?
or merely rediscovering
new ambitions?

should i hit the 'send'
or stock the 'draft'

conceding defeat
is not an option.

© April 2012

I AM ME

I am the wind
soft and invisible
yet roofs i tear asunder
waters of the sea
i twist and hold
hurl and maul into hurricanes

i am the sun's morning rays
sweet yet intensely feeble
soothing on the skin
but vicious to the ants

i am that first love
deep and intense and virgin
pure and stupid and crazy
unforgettable,
yet often burnt out
in the intensity of its own depth

i am me
i am the path not taken
i am the promise unkept
i am the expectation unmet
i am me
the best kept secret
the loss you hate to remember

i am
just
me

© March 2012
 

Movements

redemption sneaks
upon me
now
yet like a thief
somehow belated

the life of the soul
is eternal
but madness does not last
what a feeling?
we were something, ha!
remember?!

 © March 2012

ITINERANT LOVE

Ode to an itinerant love
hawkers of affection

you are a wanderer
a spent cartridge
waiting for a good samaritan
to rescue your tortured biomass

but where you stand
only vultures of utility reside
whence then shall come your redemption?

you are a Kenyan girl
scarred by the rush for waterfalls
you are a Nairobi one
all but now time barred

the irony of sacrifice
to crave sunshine
but stand in the rain

you are a Kenyan girl

© February 2012

YOU ARE US

there will be untidy turns in the road ahead
bridges without guardrails
insane users of this, our road
but you are the best of 'em all

there will be moments of intensity
and moments of lull
of high adrenaline and cold chilling spells
there will be cheerleaders unto darkness
never get carried away
for you, today
are the driver of our collective tomorrows

before we grasp the hate
remember only the love
not relationships vandalised
of their sense of humanity
there will be time for remembrance

relax.

© February 2012

LIBREVILLE, by night

Sister sistah
i saw u last night
at the lobby of Hotel Residence Maisha

like a feather
caught in a windy night-sky
you glided in - elegant
hot as the Indian masala
my other eye ached in appreciation
as i envied the gent waiting at the lobby
to lead your delectable self
unto this expensive slaughterhouse

is it you i saw again this morning
by the humongous kingly gates, outside
standin
alone
and haggard
waiting for a ride?

good morning Sister sistah

aah!
ways of the night
ills of the dark

like the coming soccer finale
the night ..must've been taxing
like an over-trodden village path
You're no more the glorious beauty

and your eyes....
you must've cried a bit
tears of joy tears of pain
tears,
but tears the same

go home sister

go home sistah
for i too have a flight to catch
KQ will probably be late
but Libreville i must depart
i wanna go home

  © February 2012

FREEDOM

I feel the urge
to write about love
that over-celebrated
state of mental disequilibrium

but to write is to contradict me
think of a freed slave
fleeing all but into the waiting arms
of a former master,
unseeing the concealed leash

i am free from such cardio-mediocrities
for now

but how do i avoid the bandwagon
without losing my sanity

i am free,
now and always

to love is to be prejudiced
at least in favor of singularity!

 © February 2012