Yours

As you turn a year older

i wish you better peace

good peace 

and 

more self-love

abundant serenity - seen and unseen

though the tempest 

may yield no respite 

- i hope it does - 

even though the boat sails 

in angry hungry thirsty waters 

- i hope calmness is reclaimed - 

and if not

may you find unexpected oars in things 

and 

places 

and 

humans 

and 

moments

and 

to more than just survive 

may you thrive 

and prosper 

in things 

seen and unseen

things felt

unfelt.

Happy Birthday! 

© October 29 2024

 

FATHERS' DAY

Greetings and Happy Fathers' Day

do tell my two investments I love them so very much

that i am more than blessed to be their Dad and father

tell them too that the best is still ahead of them

assure them that I shall be a Dad 

to them 

as I have been a father Figure to many

tell Naimah-the-Smart that she is the first of my loins 

apple of my eye and the joy of my heart

she will go places and conquer the world

and I will be her greatest cheerleader

always

remind the children 

that never will I ever leave them behind

that I shall lead

where I must go ahead 

my hand they'll have to hold

and even though 

they may stumble as they must - sometimes

they must never fall thru' the cracks 

in my watch

tell Hawi-the-Great 

he is the anchor and the baton

the great stabiliser 

(and) the calmer of the tempests

the stream that becomes a river 

in him the great Rangach stands firm

endures

swings open... 

in expectant continuity 

the source that became the/a river

in Hawi, Dala endures.

Tell the children I love them now

as I have in the past

and will always

may they always find meaning in this 

and future Fathers' Days

everyday

In Memoriam

Insh~Allah!

© Everyday. EverYear. Always from 2014

MASENO SCHOOL - Return to the Source

Today and tonight I went back to those early days, formative days they say. I retraced my footsteps through the sands (dusts?) of time, (re)entering the hallowed gates of this fountain that lay astride the Equator. I embraced this humble, unsung giant, a giant nonetheless for those who 'danced' on its concrete paths, touched its tended lawns and travelled its tarmacked highways. Not just from Stansfeld to Owen and Willis, but importantly from Dr. Robert Ouko to Bowers and Olang' and the memory of W.J.O Amadi. Why shouldn't I, for i am a MOBA if you must. 

I crossed to the other side too, where highlife now resides.

And tomorrow when the sun rises above River Miehe. Miehe where we ran to fetch the coloured waters in the choking droughts of the mid-dying 90s when we wore Red and Yellow and Blue and Purple 'weird' bullet-proof vests. Vests so wrongfully enChristened games kits!
I remembered descending River Miehe..., clothed in the all powerful imposing Red of Dr. Robert Ouko. 

Aaah! memories

So tomorrow, as the sun rises above River Miehe, I will stroll past the imposing Old Mackay, across the Academic Quadrangle, past the resilient Jacob's Well towards the ageless indefatigable Oseno tree where it all began in 1905. As I enter timelessness that is The Rock of Ages, I will humble myself before the Lord so that I may be lifted as I reminisce and reconnect with those Sundays many moons past. Sundays when Rats and I once 'accepted Jesus' just free comrades from the stranglehold of an overly0enthusiastic preacher who now threatened our Sunday freedom and 10am 'carbon.'

I hope they sing my favourite tunes. I hope the Golden Bells lifts my youthful soul one more time. I hope too, that they shall sing about blessings.

                "Where upon life's billows you are tempest tossed,

                    When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost,

                                    Count your many blessings

                                        Name them one by one

                          And it will surprise you  what the Lord hath done."

                                                

                                                    {Chorus}

© February 2020

HABEMUS #JordanHawi

You arrived here. 

eventually
clothed in clouds of drowsiness
a final borrow
from mum's anaesthesia

though a detour to the HDU
filled us with trepidation
you arrived safe. still

contentment reigns
no worthier co-heir
and Naimah the brilliant one smiles
karibu to this
our huduma republic

100K debt no doubt
a crown of thorns
around your graceful innocence
a future so indeterminate
a politics devoid of values
and generations lost to worries

come on though
for you too are a child
of this great universe
deserving of Daddily love

And so 50:50 it is
and #OnWard 

both must trudge
equal in the thickets of this life
naimah for hawi for naimah

not the boys less
but the girls more.

or is it?

© August 2019

THE #THIEVESofJUBILEE

Evil reigns
over public good
light shudders and flickers
at the sight of darkness
and yet darkness thrives

what a pity
what sacrilege
that such a collection
of unethical biomass
should be called Jubilee

even so

evil reigns.

so long!


© July 2019

AFRICAN SPRING(S)

Splinters of an African Spring

dominoes of freedom
dominoes that spread love

#BenAliIsFallen

echoes of malice
tom toms of delayed tomorrows
rend the air

#MubarakIsFallen

we heard your echoes
in the "Occupy Movements"
of a morally indefensible Europe
Obamaland too was pollinated 

All lives matter they said
#BlackLivesMatter we say

#BouteflikaIsFallen

fertilized agitations
fuel a desperate search 

for new humanity

#BashirIsFallen

Tunisia rises yet again
the limits of revolutions without revolutionaries

aborted dreams or dreams deferred?

Cairo? Tunis? Khartoum?

did we thinking about the post-revolutionary moment?

© July 2019

TRANSITIONS

September sneaks upon us
like a shadow
climate change pushes
July's cold this far
farewell to home and Babylon

it is now only September
but July, too was an end
hope rises

there shall be renewal
and grass in green lushes
will grow again
embracing barren grounds
sealing the cracks 

now so visibly angry

the cracks

and cleavages
and rifts
and departures

but for now
we must set upon new paths
and new journeys

when the rain clouds gather
who are we to wrestle 

with the gods of plenty
and 

goddesses of restlessness

we have
in heated moments
of passionate divergence
imposed upon ourselves new missions
for new seasons

nothing is permanent
nothing, they say
nothing lasts forever

but hope
what of hope?

© September 2018

PATRIOTISM

When the dignity of giants
stay drowned
in the cacophonous rattle
of ethical dwarfs

to find our place in the sun
to dream and chase dreams
unhindered by the artificialities
of last names
and geographies
and genders

to be. simply
a people with a new-found
Kenyanity

to make out nationhood indivisible
to be consumed by all
in all
for all

© August 2018

M-HANGI

Come on now

You can't die on me just yet

toooo much unfinished business we got

too much body-luggage

and holding keys to the city

this is no state to go to paradiso 

i ken't

and talking of your ribs

they are yet to crackle

are you afraid of happiness

delivered by born again pagans

or merely the religious tap of wicked fingers

is this dance the real deal
or merely a contested mutuality.

© July 2018

THINGS

We colonised the skies

there was nowhere to fly

together we drained the swamps

they had nowhere to breed

and no air to breath

killing the competition

was mastered time-stamp

conquests w/as an art

and love?

love is a state of mental instability.

© April 2018

NAIMAH

Here you are!

pretty thing. tiny feet. purer heart

how time flies and tries and dies

before our very eyes

four shallow years
set to drift by tomorrow

it seems so close to yesterday
that brief ceremony of scalpels
from which you came forth
shrills of thrill in medicated rooms

where sanitized air and i
soothed your dazed mama
to tentative slumber
your welcome shrill an only interruption

four seasons of joy

punctuated with moments

of stiffening trepidation
from birth pains to growth pains

the rise and fall of seasons

no one knows
what tomorrow holds
but in this concert of daddily rhymes

love reigns

with uncontested affection 

grow up Nay
happy 48 moons mama!

© January 2018

STOCKHOLM SYNDROME

Once again
we stand naked, here
at the crossroads of despair and hope
holding onto each other's abusive hands
gazing into the teary horizon

we stood at the midpoint of it all

behind us
familiar crowds
chants of reconditioned anthems
hopes repackaged and visions regurgitated

yet still we fell for the anthem
or did we?
a tyranny of blunders ahead
a litany of murders behind

what a season of cynicism
what improbability of hope

yet daylight must surely come

©December 2017

WE WERE ONE. STILL

must it take adversity to bring us together
our oneness merely but temporary
we are one is not but a maligned anthem
a forced reminder of catastrophic failures
in the nationalist project

ethnic geographies, orgies of theft
myths of oneness abound
the burden of history brings trepidation
as a nation gropes through its worst fears

It is the season of plunder
and wanton abandon

why are we like this

© March 2017

GIGIRI

What is the beauty
of promises unbroken
or heartstrings unstrained
in one way  streets of justified jealousies

here the coastal strips
of my cautious heart
gasped for air
intermittently
a glorious pain
from the caressing white sands
of the promises you kept

what happened in Gigiri?

can true heartbreaks affirm love
or vulnerability affirm strength

beyond love
what more must humanity ask for

© 16 February 2017

LEGACY

Sometimes it may seem unlikely that you matter

and that you too matter

yet you both do

when the dust settles and

the drumbeats of war drowned and

the ghosts of companionship stand appeased

by the steely silence of an empty seat at the top of the dinner table

when the roaring ambition dies

to be replaced by complacent acceptance 

of fate as it shouldn't be

you still will matter

rest then

in solid solidarity of oneness

knowing too that you too matter not only now

as you were but then as you'll be

always.

for in the fullness of time, when the thunder dies and

the skies clear and

the props drop and

everybody recedes in the bitter-sweet aftertaste of farewell....

only you two must carry the legacy

shall carry the legacy

carry the legacy

the legacy

my enduring footprints in the sands (mud?) of time.

© August 2016

FLANNAN

So sure i now am
we could
should do beer one of these suns
or smoke expired weed together
in some dingy corner of this
great
and emotionally suppressed city

come back on into life
won't you now
dump care in the pits of abandon

come seize
these crystals of freedom
crush and let them
slip and slip through
our tired but shared fingers

© May 2016

ROSA

You are
of the mysterious flock
i call you the agile one

but now i know
like they know that you know
suave beyond salvation
yet not without damnation
you are just but a practising psychologist

in this game of minds
minds of hearts touching, soothing
directing
without breaking
this swathe of rampant human emotions

you are but an accomplished scientist
proficient in this lab of human emotions

you are Rosa
of the mysterious flock
i call you sistah from the lighter stock

why then
are you such a fleeting shadow
so long a ghost of positive torment
must i retire or choose life without fear

i too am a survivor
and though the war is far from over
i triumph in these battles
irredeemable sense of pride uncrushable
a strong will exerts itself over the weak

are you brave?

© April 2016

SOLDIERS NEVER DIE: El Adde

Mortality as immortality

though the State might dither
sometimes
though the enemy might celebrate
sometimes
though the world might move on
sometimes

we know you are among us
in a place safer than that night
of chaotic transition

we remember you
and honour your galant sacrifice
that we may live
we remember you
and honour your blood

that we may breath.

soldiers never die

you too are among us.

© April 2016

EUGENE MARTIN: a belated memoriam

Good teachers never die, they say
they live on in the solitary yet shared memory
the gloom and cheer of academic hallways
and the confident gait of successful graduates

and now they say
you took that long limitless walk among the departed
how can it be that Summer '08 was a farewell
the final dinner @ adams morgan
the lunch @ the malaysian
the chinese and russian and indian embassies

so much fun. so much knowledge. so effortlessly delivered

good teachers never die Gene
they reside in the hearts of their brilliant students
the roaring laughter and periodic nostalgia
so you went

what more can orphaned fans do but cry
in silent acceptance of this pale reality

walk well among the spirits
be well among the elders
see down through the clouds

great teachers never die.

© March 2016