DIARY OF A HARLOT

His touch was not tender
Far from his puffy wallet
Even further from that of my regular client;
The stinky mason with rough  hands
Yet I  had to bear with it
Bear with his big ego, corruption money, indifferent heart....
Bear with his careless libido
As he roughed me up on the prado's backseat
His elderly driver seemed ashamed
Of I his daughters age-mate,
A blend of imported cologne and wine
Suffocated me as he struggled to kiss me
I so unwilling
Of course I had not brushed stench of weed and cheap gutter liquor
Off my mouth for sometime.

Now as I watch him on the television
Clad in a starched Italian suit
Ebbing out queens English
Contributing to the Anti-prostitution  bill
I smile recalling his wild moans
He called a woman's name, may be the wife's
Or another hooker from another day
He  promised me a re-match
To match a fat cheque to shut my gossip mouth
Of course gossip could ruin his political fortunes
He also promised me a job as a senior noisemaker
Mandated to sing his praises all through
Come next general erection.

TRIBE-ULTIMATE-BRIBE BREED OF A NATION

Bundles of notes won't do  better
Feminine sex appeal won't either
The threshold is obscenely higher
Whenever public bandits are out to hire.

Tire not dragging a million academic reams
Their dusty weight's out of any-help realm
More so, it could dim the gleam
Where competition thwarts ethnocentric status dreams.

More than enough is  lingual inclination
Well, if it rhymes with the epicentre
Of public resource mis-allocation
Surname is the key to fortunes beyond imagination.

Woe unto a people oppressed in mis-representation
In this tribe-ultimate-bribe breed of a nation.

WEEPING MAU* (For Wangari Mathai)

It happened too fast
No time for even a bitter farewell
Just alot to ponder
Over the coming dark spell.

Mama, what offense did I commit
That you took a path with no retreat?
Leaving me an orphan in a den of sycophants
Who care a little about my existence.

Like my  little sister Uhuru-park*
My hope of survival lay on you
My hug of life was too,
Now, whom do I turn to?

You left no clue of your new address
How do I reach you
When they come for what is left of me
After they're done with what is left of you?

Can't you see through their hypocrisy
As they heap your demise with satirical praise
After they called you names
For protecting my brother Karura* Forest.

My future looks bleak
Unless another you........oh! dear heavens
They say none can be like one's mother......
I'll just hope God gives me another.



*Mau Forest is the largest water catchment in Kenya and whose reclamation has been crippled bu local politics.
*Uhuru park and Karura Forest are two ecosystems whose protection from land grabbers were the signature of Maathai's environmental campaign in kenya.

THIS SIDE OF LEAFY SUBURBS

Naked kids play about a heap of smelly garbage
Adjoining the swollen pit latrine,
Mind you watered WCs are tales
In this side of leafy suburbs.

In this side of leafy suburbs
Mansions are caved out of earth
Paved yards are a muddle of thick mud
Below power line above super pipeline
Just waiting for roast-human-flesh time..

Come see for your self brother
Drunken landlords banging cracking doors
Desperate tenants peeping through cracking walls
Counting on seconds before Lucifer breaks loose
Remember violent bulldozer-evictions are inevitable
In this side of leafy suburbs.

In this side of leafy suburbs
Children dread nightfall
When utter darkness brother to bedbugs reigns
Don't think about it if it happens to rain
In this side of leafy suburbs, aha
People are in-laws with complaints-no-gain-lots of-pain.

PUBLIC DUMPSITE

Towering high, conspicuously mighty
Obnoxious, murky, stinking-filthy
Midst the sophistication
That is paved manicured city streets
A crystal image of the populace's rot
Political vultures, social flies, economic  crows
Hungrily hover in the misty air above it.
.
The stench is overwhelming
But alas! its the product of the souls
That surround it
They sneer at it disgustingly
Turn away blocking their insensitive noses
Soon to forget the mess
Once behind their shanties' shaky paper doors.

Once in a while, the masses
Ashamed of their reflection in its majesty;
Tribal politics, economic segregation, moral degradation
Conspire to clean it
Later to fill it up again with sewage
Product of their unhealthy hand-out diets.

Like a multi-tentacled monster
The stench and filth grows
In weight, height and form
From a monolithic expensive social fabric
To a stratified pyramid of thieves
From the king's castle to the pauper's dungeon
Like third-world bush fire.

Soon the ogre will devour all
Less the masses conspire and execute its fall,
I'm talking about this city hole.....oh no no...august hall!

ME, YOU, JUST A REFLECTION

Me a reflection of you
Firmly entangled in us too
Me who feels your pain
As the universe pinches your heart
You who smiles my smile
When all around me smiles
We who share moments
Even though for a while
Why then should we
Live in discord
To love we should
Give a nod
Me shares your emotions
Lost in the muddle of your reflections
You, me, just the same us
Why then the fuss

ONCE A PROSTITUTE

That tune takes me back in time

Back when Musa Juma was in his prime

On the dance floor kung fu was the style to beat

Afro hair, mini skirt, rhumba......

Then life was fun, no HIV to evade

No crazy murderers, rapists, just money to be made

Pot-bellied-older men were still a fat prey

Better still if on the head there were traces of grey.

Back then boys in blue had no clue

We didn't have to vanish to dark alleys

In fear that they'd arrest, molest

And as fee for freedom explore our precious valleys.

End month was still a boom

Then, only the wily got the fat prize

Battle lines were drawn

Lucky were those whose thighs were brown.

That tune takes me back in time

When my dignity was up for grabs

When I had sank to the lowest of my lowest

When I could caress filth with no groves

When on the streets men carelessly roughed my chest

When the dignified woman I am today

Was no more than a rag;

Just an inglorious nobody.