Nairobi chicks
Skimp on meals to become like a stick
Meet them down streets, shades and red lipstick
Those sumptuous curves; that singing gait – everything is tick
How you want to hold onto her waist and stick
She is something brown or something dark,
Something you want to lick
But wait
Go make with her a deal
You will then know if she is real
For when you are headed to the till
Lucky you if she won’t bring you her bill
Of shoes, electricity, rent, credit and still
She expect you to buy her another hills
You’d thought you had made a kill
Now you feel she’s here to steal
She’s a vacuum you can’t fill
So my nigger just be still
For that is the deal!
Songs of My Heart
Thursday 5 March 2015
Nairobi Chicks
Wednesday 3 December 2014
I Imagine Your Last Moments
I imagine your last moments
Hours before it happened
Wonder if you saw it coming
That this sun won’t rise on your faces again
That it would be hours; then you’d rest on your shadows
Hours before those brutes came
Merchants of death
Hooded faces adorning jungle fatigue
Gun-trotting cowards, crawling in the dark
Smelling the lie that they lived
Invoking the name of Allah
But for all the wrong reasons
I imagine you wrapped in your blanket
Soundly drinking porridge from the huge slumber guard
Your snore carrying far, drawing them to your tents
They tear in, kicking, yanking your blankets off
They order you out in a smattering Kiswahili
I imagine what a nightmare real life must have felt
As they shooed you out, with trembling hands on your heads
I imagine you, down low
Sandy gravel, cold as ice, cutting into your knees
Your shirts soaked in sweat; you know you are going to die
You know nobody will come to your rescue
Your safety, if any, is in your hands
I imagine them looking at you; their cold eyes staring
Waiting for you to recite a passage from the Koran
You fumble and blab and cry
And all you could remember to say was “Jesus!”
How they took you aside, like chaff
Because they thought that they are the wheat
I imagine their boots on your back
Sending you to the ground
Sending you to the ground
Your face hitting the dust
Your mouth and sand filing with sand
In a row, so you laid facedown
Waiting
Waiting to die
I imagine the terror of the moment
With your eyes closed, as you waited
The exploding gunshots tearing the cold still darkness
One at a time, coming down the row
Coming to you
Heads bursting like pumpkins fallen on a hard ground
Blood, warm and innocent, spilling and soaking the desert
sand
The yelps, the mourns of mercy that go unheeded
Your comrade wriggle and kick and die
The flame of their candles snuffed out
As you wait . . .
I imagine the tears in your eyes
As you wondered why you had to die like that
I imagine the terror
Hope you died of the terror alone
Not the head-splitting gunshots
Yes, I imagine how you died
How horrible, how painful!
Dying in the callous hands of deranged dogs
Dogs out on the leash,
Answering the call of their misguiding masters
Who confuse God for the Devil
And mislead generations of hapless men
To kill and maim and plunder
And die for a worthless cause
I imagine why you died
For me; for us
Somehow I feel so sure
That your death was not in vain
Wednesday 15 October 2014
Still Me
The oceans breathes and moves towards our shores
Her breeze is calm, to wounds quite sore
Her memory, huge, I can’t store
Yet here I am, heading to the fore
Even if I can’t breathe, I’m still me
I’ve once gone astray and stepped on thorns
I’ve lived on saliva, Ive starved to bones
I’ve danced with snakes, I’ve drunk blood from horns
Both left and right, so has my life been torn,
And even if I regret sometimes, this is still me
One day I will come to that place
A huge, a deep space
From whence I can only trace
The white depth of my divinity
But till then I am still here
Still me!
Monday 19 May 2014
Country Man
Give me a bottle, Country Man
Our usual hard stuff, fiery and numbing.
My fifty bob is here, sir
It's all between me and Jesus' coming
So don't mess with my change
I want it now, before I forget remembering
And listen to me good, Country Man
When we come to you, be the sponge that can sop our sorrows
Hurl us across this valley of torments
Give tomorrows, we borrow!
Instead you have quickly turned us into stiffs
And those you can't kill, you trap them to walking sticks
It's not good, Country Man, its not good!
Stop saying am raising my voice at you, Country Man
You don't know an inch how hard it is to be me!
To hustle in this country where my name tells it all
In this country,
Where a festival of road carnage is going on
Where a season of blasts is in earnest
And you, Country Man, you won't spare my brother still!
You've poked fingers deep into my nose, Country Man
So deep, I can't breathe
You want to tax me even on rights so conjugal
How can I ever trust your smile again?
When you are here busy, beating drums for those that suck our blood?
At noon you call yourself our savior
At dusk you sneer at our trusting patience
And then join the strides of those that mark our mass graves.
Our usual hard stuff, fiery and numbing.
My fifty bob is here, sir
It's all between me and Jesus' coming
So don't mess with my change
I want it now, before I forget remembering
And listen to me good, Country Man
When we come to you, be the sponge that can sop our sorrows
Hurl us across this valley of torments
Give tomorrows, we borrow!
Instead you have quickly turned us into stiffs
And those you can't kill, you trap them to walking sticks
It's not good, Country Man, its not good!
Stop saying am raising my voice at you, Country Man
You don't know an inch how hard it is to be me!
To hustle in this country where my name tells it all
In this country,
Where a festival of road carnage is going on
Where a season of blasts is in earnest
And you, Country Man, you won't spare my brother still!
You've poked fingers deep into my nose, Country Man
So deep, I can't breathe
You want to tax me even on rights so conjugal
How can I ever trust your smile again?
When you are here busy, beating drums for those that suck our blood?
At noon you call yourself our savior
At dusk you sneer at our trusting patience
And then join the strides of those that mark our mass graves.
I go to bed with a millstone of debt around my neck
Tomorrow I wake up, the debt is even huge, I can lift myself
up
Whether you turn us East, away from the West
We are still slaves, worse off even
Where are our rhinos, Country Man, our elephants?
You have sneaked their goodies to friends in the East
Those that give with one hand and steal with the other!
Oh stop it, Country Man!
Don't put out the light on me
Even if you do so, I will still find my way to my mouth
And give me my change, its my right
You've always promised me change
No wonder you poison and blind us
So we can go and forget about it
Damn you, Country Man!
Tuesday 13 May 2014
Sometimes in August
Twas some times in August
When we met, over three decades ago
I was just a faceless tiny red thing, yelling my way into the world
Clinching something in my hands
And you were just beginning life, on the cusps of your forties
Then sometimes in August, nine years ago
You boarded that bus into the land of no return
Sometimes, I miss you sometimes
Especially when an old songs wafts through the radio
And drives me back to eighties when I was still a little boy
When you would unwrap your LP in the sitting room
There, when we used to live at Government Quarters, Mbotela
And you would slide those ‘plates’ on the LP
And Franco and Ongaro would fill our house with life
My brothers and I would sit there and watch you nod
Just sit there and watch, afraid to dance but loving it
Because it was Christmas
Because this was rare
Yesterday I heard one of those songs
And like a bridge it took me back to you
And I missed you
Yet you’re so far away
On that other side of life
Away, oceans away
You were here with us once
And it seemed it would last forever
It seemed too early to say ‘I love you’
The words wouldn't come even in our happiest of times
Then destiny began to snatch you away
And we could do nothing but just watch you go away
Sometimes I feel it was a lost chance
But I know you understand that I cared
Our years apart have been full of silence
And memories that I cannot rearrange
Your silence in life taught me that not everything is worth saying
Your silence in death teaches me that every moment is worth everything
That today I should live it to the full
So tomorrow there won’t be no space left for small sorrows
Wednesday 16 April 2014
He Is A Good Man
We eat ugali
and salt; our only meal each day
And skimp on
other basics
Just to save
enough for his private jet to take him picnics.
We pay
thrice to have some cloths on our backs
So the taxman
can collect enough to fill the coffers
And raise
some cash to service our man's debts.
Through the
bushy paths we trudge
Surefooted,
beating down the freezing dew, as we head to the market
Here,
muggers and rapists lie in wait, sometimes
Hunting us
like starved lions
It doesn't
matter if we get hurt, even die
So long as
our man lives behind high perimeter walls
And walks
behind another wall of neatly dressed, mean looking armed body guards
It doesn’t
matter for he is a good man.
Don't talk
rubbish about our man; he is our hero, our savior
They call
him corrupt, a murderer
Why do these
animals like to blasphame his name?
Don't ask me
if he knows me; or knows the smell of my tatters
Yes, I won't
marry his beautiful daughter even if I wanted
That I agree;
am too poor for that
But I cannot
marry any of these animals either
They who
want our man gone to the grave.
Don't remind
of me how I broke my leg
When rioting
on the streets, fighting for our
rights
Yet our man
couldn't even come to see me in hospital
And I had to
request some of these animal friends to help me pay the bill
Don't remind
me of that animal orphan who died a bloody death
When our
man's goons descended on her with hateful lust
And
punctured her dignity with overzealous manhoods
You can't
even say that was our man's work
He wasn’t there
in the first place; he wouldn’t do that!
Don't remind
me of my Aunt, Lizy
Who has
lived in a leaky tent, all these five years
Do you think
our man has forgotten her plight?
That he used
her vexation to bargain for power
And then
turned his back on her wounds and tears?
Don't remind
me these things
I know our
man
He is a good
man!
Last month
he came
On a convoy
of huge black cars, mammoths of the road
He stirred
the village awake, gave us an instant holiday
We abandoned
our hoes, to go sing his name and praises
We sprinkled
our scarce water on the bumpy dusty road
To spare him
a bout of sneezing
Out in the
scortching sun, amidst the surging crowd, we craned our necks for a better view
Our man
talked from the cool podium, with a mike in his soft hand
The voice of
our people, the lion of the tribe of our land
We listened
and cheered and clapped hard our callused hands
Just to make
light his heart; just to make him leaves us something small
He will come
back after a few years, to ask for our votes
It will not
matter if he has delivered on his past pledges
He is a good
man!
If we don't
mind paying the mortgage
For his
third palatial home; while we live under leaky thatch
If we pay
extra for food; to help him maintain his numerous mistresses
If we will
rush again to his rallies
To swallow
his lies without chewing!
If we will
vote him again; just because he is our man
Then he is a
good man!
Tuesday 1 April 2014
There is A Plane Missing on Our Sky
There is a plane missing in our sky
We are not seeing it, everything we try
One hopes the end of this search is nigh
We keep searching, even in tides so high
There is a plane missing in our sky
Hundreds of souls gone, yonder than we can spy
A couple returning to Beijing
after an invigorating beach get away
headed home to their little two sons
A construction worker making his trip home
the first time after an year of longing
A whole clan of Chinese calligraphers
the most esteemed of them all
gone missing with all the wealth of their art.
There is a plane missing in our sky
Leaving questions piled on our minds
And sorrows untold, boiling in some hearts
An American girlfriend holds a white rose
she takes a wistful sniff and holds
the green stem closer to her dark blouse.
"may be, he is alive," she says
"may be, he is dead,"
yes may be
for who will help her reconcile
these thousand, thousand doubts within.
A daughter tweets her dad
wondering if he will make it home in time
to relish his favourite Liverpool
mauling Man City.
There is a plane lost in our sky
There are no clues, no debris to still our vexed nerves
The skies are silent; the oceans spit junk at us
Another day passes
And there, the strength to command miracles fizzles out.
Perhaps a prayer; another minute of holding on
Is all there is to do now
We are not seeing it, everything we try
One hopes the end of this search is nigh
We keep searching, even in tides so high
There is a plane missing in our sky
Hundreds of souls gone, yonder than we can spy
A couple returning to Beijing
after an invigorating beach get away
headed home to their little two sons
A construction worker making his trip home
the first time after an year of longing
A whole clan of Chinese calligraphers
the most esteemed of them all
gone missing with all the wealth of their art.
There is a plane missing in our sky
Leaving questions piled on our minds
And sorrows untold, boiling in some hearts
An American girlfriend holds a white rose
she takes a wistful sniff and holds
the green stem closer to her dark blouse.
"may be, he is alive," she says
"may be, he is dead,"
yes may be
for who will help her reconcile
these thousand, thousand doubts within.
A daughter tweets her dad
wondering if he will make it home in time
to relish his favourite Liverpool
mauling Man City.
There is a plane lost in our sky
There are no clues, no debris to still our vexed nerves
The skies are silent; the oceans spit junk at us
Another day passes
And there, the strength to command miracles fizzles out.
Perhaps a prayer; another minute of holding on
Is all there is to do now
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