WHO ELSE MAMA

Who else mama
Would have fallen in love
With a desperate hopeless boy
Who else mama
Would have provided real joyful toys
To a brat used to playing about
With plastic dolls of destitution
And marionettes of illusional joy.

Who else mama
Would have cared the least
About an irritating homeless kid
With a wierd accent and a strange strain
Who else mama
Would have taken home a stranger
Henceforth nurturing them
With the precision of a surgeon's razor.

Who else mama
Would have stood villagers' insults
Sore ridicule from children alike adults
Who else mama
Would have blocked her ears
Standing blatant humiliation for years
While building confidence
In a young soul drowning in fear.


Who else mama
Would have been frightened silly
By midnight fever of a child they didn't bear
Who else mama
Would have, in  joy of growth milestones achieved shed a tear
Who else mama
Would have placed her interest at the rear
Just to offer the best
To one not of her womb, but whom she considered dear.

Who else mama
Who else do I call mama
Who else do I owe my life
Who else do I offer my undying love
Who else's love does flow in my nerves
Who else nourishes my soul
Who else makes me whole
Who else is my only caring mother
Yet too my courageous father
Who else
But you dear mama


This is a poem that I specially wrote, dedicated and performed to adoptive single mothers in Nairobi.. God bless you all for having the love and the courage to touch a child's heart. 

WHEN A PIG PROMISES BACON........

He came begging for consent

With his innocent melodious accent

Resembling Mother Teresa's reincarnate

All fell for the masquerade,

Bacon he promised,

His dear life too

Like a martyr straight from heaven.

With drooling appetite for loose change

On the driving seat

The bait, we wholesomely swallowed

Stunningly, for the millionth time

Long before the pig left the sty

En-route to the imaginary abattoir.

Why then the rumbling

Now that the bacon 

Is no where on the menu

While in the sty

The pig is grappling for more ration.

Isn't it not wise to salivate

For bacon promised by a pig

While his head is still intact

And his snout still delving in sludge?

I CHOOSE NOT SOLITUDE

I choose to live amongst men
For midst multitudes
Only warmth thrives
While shivers find no solace.

I choose to live midst men
Where echoes are of differing opinions
Yet these opinions are born
Of a diversity of experiences.

I choose to live amongst men
For knowledge is that which is sort
Not the mediocrity that is one's thoughts
Informed by personal shallow wells.

I choose to live amongst men
Where my spirit is endlessly nourished
From the bowels of the legends of humanity
Who chose not the solitary way.

I choose to live amongst men
For the heart grows weak
If confined in solitude
I choose to live amongst men
I choose not solitude.

FLOWER WITH NO PETALS

 








Beauty devoid of glamour
Laughter deficient of humour
A relic of an impeccable flower.

Nectar heartlessly sour
A disgrace before the Almighty sower
A relic of an impeccable flower.

Flower with no petals
Power without a humane touch
A mighty tower bound to tumble
A flower with no petals.


A heart with no love is like a flower with no petals; glamour-less!

SHE TOOK MY HAND

Lost in the middle of indifferent humanity

An innocent infant hanging onto life

Just a heartbeat from destitution

Crawling from door to door, a voiceless cockroach!

Playing hide and seek with fate's misfortunes.

She took my hand

To a haven safe from inhuman customs

Insulated me from religious intolerance.

She took my hand

Led me from a garbage bin

Onto the table of kings.

She was one of a kind, one of a big heart

She took me on a voyage

To a paradise where I'd never be hurt.

She took my hand

Placed me closer to her bossom

A world where only roses blossom

Where love for humanity reigns supreme.

She took my hand

Ignored the voices of the heartless

Stood the heat from the callous

Proving she was selfless.

She took my hand

She took my troubles

She took my weaknesses

She took my failings

She took my hand

When others evaded me

Like a  leaper.

This poem is dedicated to my late mother who despite the stigma and hostility towards adoption had the courage and the heart to adopt us and bring us up as her very own children. This gesture remains as a living proof that " LOVE IS MIGHTIER THAN BLOOD"

WHEN YOU ARE AWAY

I hum tunes with no rhythm
I speak words with no meaning
I dance to routines with no drum-beats
I dream of emptiness
I talk of hopelessness
I plan for loneliness.

I drown in tears
I shrink in fear
I surrender to life's rear
I engage emotional low gear
My conscience is never clear
Thinking I'm the cause of the tear.

So next time when you plan to leave
Notify me so I can plan for the grief
So I may know it's just for a while
That you'll be back to return my smile
Next time lend me your caring heart
So I may hold it close to mine at night
Next time leave behind your lips
So I may kiss them goodnight before I sleep
Next time leave your love below my pillow
So from it my dreams will flow.

LITTLE BOY AT HEART

I play like a little boy
I roll in the mud muddling with my toys
I play hide and seek and drown in childhood joy
I look in the mirror, to my amusement
I've already grown a beard
I can sense teenage is no longer with me
I can feel twenties flowing out of my veins
Yet I'm still a little boy at heart
Jovial, innocent, playful........
Yet as stubborn as can be
Whenever life demands that I be.