SUNSHINE

Silence flows through
this cacophony of love
a shared existence
in life's twisted terrains

words fail
sometimes...

yet to know
that you may never know
is sheer sad-ity

thunder strikes
sometimes...

you're here as you are
calm and celebrated
joyous whirlwind
shake me now
shake me forever

floods rage
sometimes...

unbowed
Naimah smiles
for her beautiful mother

the sun?
the sun shines

© November 2015

FREEDOM AS BONDAGE

@sayafrica:
If the spark is gone
don't hurt yourself more
trying to be nice
cut me adrift like ice.

@Sangodala:
If you had cut me adrift
in error of judgement
uncertain of the spark
or its presence
confuse me no more
chase not my now receding shadow.

@sayafrica:
Am no eunuch
to be auctioned
nor alsatian
but a Spartan
the bullet to my body
or the pitchfork
to my head

@Sangodala:
You're child
of no lesser goddess
this now i confirm
if the Rubicon you must cross
let it not be to Waterloo
where Napoleon now rests!

@sayafrica:
Like Noah to Ararat
i too my must arrive
at a safe haven
far from the havoc.

© November 2015

EDEN

How could it be,
should it be
that i am so swiftly cured of this
my present affliction
when here i am
still laid prostrate
waiting for the beauty of your voice
to serenade my tired frame
to sweet nothingness

how then can i?

Mhhh... i write from the heart
that my words may cure your affliction
where you lie prostrate
even as i find my voice
to rejuvenate your tired frame
to pure blissfulness

ooooh my words!


You are a child of the gods
chosen for your maturity
primed for the ultimate sacrifice
your sins could be forgiven
hasten then to grant passage
to the innermost sanctums
so that my light may shine
thru' the darkest  crevices
and so dissolve the cobwebs
of reluctant resistance

or didn't i hear you say the coast was clear, once?

© October 2015

LISTofSHAME

Ooh God of All Creations,
please look after the clowns
that run our public affairs
that their buffoonery may not sink
the dreams of a generation
but deliver us from the HASHTACracy

bless this our land and nation
fatten those that steal our inheritance
and burst the bellies of the digitally-corrupt
may you hasten their delivery
to the cold concrete slabs of high-end morgues

justice be our shield and defender
not their eating-without-out surrender
govern our appetite to elect ushenzi
and shield them from all accountability

may we dwell in chosen consequences
embrace the birth-product of our (s)elections
that we may know peace and liberty
only as enablers of an eating economy

may plenty be found within our borders
how else will we find some crumbs
from the high table of State-led Corruption?

© October 2015

SECURITY

Cry,

the beloved country

when #thoughtcrime descends

upon hapless souls

of dejected netizens

and pens drained 

of all journalistic bloodline

what the rents the air
are all sounds of dirges

cry the beloved
when you cross that invisible line
standing within the gates of a city in mourning
is it time
to join in the strained dirges

cry

the beloved country

when security breeds insecurity

and yesterday steals possibilities

of beautiful tomorrows

cry the more

no more

cry

and rise.

© May 2015

KIAMA

With our feet dangling
dangerously by the water of the Lolwe
and Heineken takes its rightful toll
on our creative faculties

we shall sit  unstill with Kiama
and others not before the court
and there,
gazing into the patient waters of Lolwe
dare to imaginate new possibilities

and the weakened Nyanza sun
sensing our impatience with lightness
shall give way
- albeit reluctantly -
to exciting ways of the dark night
Kisuma!

© April 2015

SUBTERFUGE

I turn and swirl in endless motions

grasping at spineless dreams

clasping reeds of needs

gasping for elusive airs

my mortality affirmed

by this whirlwind of needs

deeds, not needs

still

the worst of me cancels

fades out in the face of the best of me

what then is immortality

we are in this together

even though
the viciousness of old dogs

now flirts dangerously close

to the carelessness of you

we are in this together

my mortality
affirmed

by this whirlwind of needs.

© April 2015

HEAVENS COMING, YOU SAID

You amaze me, you said
give me a season, i danced away
slumped on the puffy couch
nodding and thumping
we found strange harmony
in the ancient beats
of Coco Tea's Hurry-up-and-Come
give me a reason, you said

again.

i don't know why
but give me a reason

thousands of reasons
a thousand seasons
who am i but a servant
unquestioning of the gods

humility beckons
like a serpent, resistance slithers
there-after
Nirvana was all but domiciled

Hurry-up-and-Come.

© March 2015

TIRED WINGS?

We spent shared lifetimes
in lovetary confinements
gave much away to all another

are we now empty with naught
for our unsuspecting successors

burnt fingers
dying embers
periodically prick
to sustain my chosen unforgetfulness

does the charred remains
of a shared abode
poke you into self-pity

succumb not to the dehumanising
allure of erasure and unmemory

live.
in the past
in the present

live.

© March 2015

PHOEBE MWARA

Five in the morning
my tick-tock love
beckons like a clock

what a damned gratitude
tortuously torn between celebration
and a lost plot of wee-hour dreams
parenthood beckons

and i
in grey sleepitude mode
nudge on my indefatigable Sirkal
a silent prayer said...
off to the rescue she jumps

Boom!

seven months and counting
fourteen and bouncing
you are the welcome lighthouse
spotted by sailors

a refuge

above else
a place of higher purpose
here,
with you,
a new direction resides

what
i wonder in anticipation
other tricks, other learnings
do you still harbour from us.

© March 2015