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.

SHE'D TIED KNOT WITH A NOOSE

She would weep every night
Her ever present smile would fade
Every time he announced his arrival
With drank slurred vulgar tunes.

He'd pour his hangover on her
Her submissive enough took it all
Insults and kicks for breakfast
After a night of marital rape.

Once he'd hit her bulging belly
Hard enough, she lost the baby
Still she swallowed it all
Its a taboo to be a divorcee, she said.

Then came the night
The very night of the demons fight
He callously forced his urine down her gullet
Called her a witch, whose only remedy was death.

While out in the fields toiling, him out drinking
She couldn't prepare food in time
So the verdict was out
He chocked her to death.

Yes, poor Mary's life cost
Was a meal
Just a meal, a handful of ugali
Yes, 'cause she'd tied knot with a noose
Till death did them part!

simonpoetically: DESTITUTE( For soldier-boys of D.R.Congo and Sierr...

simonpoetically: DESTITUTE( For soldier-boys of D.R.Congo and Sierr...: "Destitute Product of human Vengeance Young tender finger Firmly on the trigger Desperate Unmothered, untethered Soldier-boy D..."

MOGANDISHU

What ails you my old jewel
That your once adorable streets
Are now tributaries of a massive river
Of blood
What demon lurks midst your people
Oh child of my mother's bosom
It's my tears that now fall
Won't you now heed to my call
Won't you wipe your children's tears
You whom we shared the same womb
You whose soul has suddenly turned a tomb.

I've witnessed mothers desperately cling
To their dry skeleton kids
As their husband are brutally maimed
Massacred, murdered
I've witnessed scared juvenile eyes
Eyes devoid of faith in humanity
I've seen ruins of once glorious mansions
I've heard of hard-line aggression
As your own pride you plunge to oblivion.

I once knew of your peaceful pre-occupation
Your humanity respecting heart
Your merciful and vibrant spirit
What ails you now
Oh child of my mother's bos