SOLDIERS NEVER DIE

Soldiers never die
they sleep in the soothing feel
of the evening  winds
Soldiers never die
they live in the rumbling terror
of smoking guns
Soldiers just never die
they endure in the confident gaits
of comrades in distant lands
            still fighting on

Good soldiers never die
they live on
in the toothless smile of orphans
and the innocent laughter of toddlers
growing without a motherly
or fatherly touch

Good soldiers just never die
they are reincarnate in the sparkling tears
of widows left behind
to tend the farms and the kids
in the widowers’ unspoken sacrifice
and in the awkward silence around dinner tables

soldiers never die
they endure in the spirit of new recruits
the words of our anthems
and the causes they ‘died’ for.
Soldier never die.

DO NOT

Do not turn away sneeringly
From the homeless in our midst
Those forever condemned
To sweet slumber in the alleys
Of glittering cities

Never spit on street tenants
Those sentenced to perpetual begging
By heartless fate

Do not cajole the jobless amongst us
Those whose brains choke with ´-isms´
Hearts searching for relevance of ´-ologys´
Resumes wasting away
In the dust of forgotten shelves
Do not cajole them
For only they know the pain of waiting

CHANGES

FEBRUARY:
Receding tides or calming waves

FEBRUARY,
You who held sway in life with beautiful memorials

FEBRUARY,
You whose true meaning now shifts under sinking sand
Turning into vanity the laughters of yore
The promise of rainbows
And chapters that will forever
                    remain unwritten
In the memoirs of togetherness
14th of the Saint
16th of an Angel’s birth
24th of the Flowery nights

FEBRUARY:
Receding tides or calming waves?

CASCADES…

As the roses rise
And blossom tomorrow,
And Lianas sway
In the morning dew,
May your affection
For loved ones
Join in the Serenade
Of enduring oneness.

May your path,
Forever so special
    evade the prickly shrubs of solitude
Let the fire…. and the ice
Of tomorrow’s passion
Mingle to consummate
Your vowed
COMMITMENTS!!

BROKEN. . . .

Sitting here, In this night lecture
My heart and mind strays eastwards
Yet none knows it perhaps
Not the enthusiastic Prof,
Not this lady beside me so fair
And none for sure can
But me
May be Anne Abaho too
For Uganda seems as far
Like a bird my self wanders
Through the vastness
Of time and space
Seeking out connexions
Or is it reconnexions
But alas!
I get lost
My spirit lost above
The cold Atlantic waters….
Nothing works, Life as cold
People no less, but some
An authentic soul staggers
Searching….
Searching for a foothold
No easy task I say
This outsider business