Born In The Dung

 

Born In The Dung

So I stretch my legs

As I did those days-

As I sat upon the path

Among the spattered dung of last night

Watching for the little giants -

Little beetles that roll balls -

Mother

Mother

When the hawker trades her spiel

For the party manifesto

She is not my mother

She is no hawker

She becomes opposition activist

A poet

Ethnic violence in East Africa: GENERAL ADVISORY

 

 

Ethnic violence in East Africa:

GENERAL ADVISORY

I.               possible scenarios

Before gossip resumes its rounds

a nation shall begin to crumble.

Much heat

Not enough breath

Pain,

gangrene,

death,

honest cheat

 honest cheat

 

So, I can't take you home

But we can walk someway

Like water and dirt-

To catch a seasonal cold

 

To catch a seasonal cold 

Once every season I shed this shell

This hard, cold, old skin

Tired and worn by long loops of dry hell

I moult and dare to bare again my self.

Every once I fall, I fall well

Fall right flat for a woman

Butterflies before an acceptance speech

 Butterflies before an acceptance speech

If madness strikes me

Seizes my senses right on the dais

Shakes me out of my habitual lies;

If I spoke the truth just once

dropped this calculated elegance

Straight Tool and Miss Last Nail

 Straight Tool and Miss Last Nail

 

Was once a tool

Real sleek steel,

fine for new nails, or fixing a few rails

or just about anything the crew wills-

a fresh prince for the price of fish-

free!