An Aquafer

I’m a solid rusty ground My chest A magma kind of rock But deep underneath it I’m an aquifer That runs a thousand feet deep Roaring silently Swirling quietly Like a tornado Waiting to come to surface An endless sea that takes off the land To evacuate no more Link to the Italian translation

Africana

When the highest bidder wanted to buy a monkey – his assistant gave him me; and this is what I had to say: I am African, but, I am not a Monkey, a Gorilla or a Chimpanzee we are custodians of the best wildlife we house the best creatures to ever exist in this life-…

The Express Song

Broadcast live on your tv screens Away from the tear gas Inhaled on our behalf By journalists Professors clamour Claiming deprived salaries On our screens we view Fist fights on Parliament floors And we ask Will our Democracy Grow? We ought to know This is not a permanent flaw When words flow We only avoid…

My son Nok

You turn your head away“He is my son”, I say“He was taken out of my grip”, I sayHe learnt how to shoot with a gun. He shot from village to villageenemies we all becamelapena leaves couldn’t hide uswe were handed blankets, beans and poshointernally displaced we became. Then I heard he was dead.“He is my…

Nya Ku Toc

It’s sarcastic how girls at seventeen, Who should have been singing, Baba black sheep or father Abraham, Are singing songs like, He has played me, he has played me. Trashed my heart, took my virginity. And so forth, and so on. And, and you wonder where kids learn songs.   This poem was inspired by…

A self portrait

This is a portrait of a woman that was born in pain… and is longing for change… A woman with a rough kind of beauty… a one not easy to pick up, hidden behind all the easy common ugly… A rebel kind of woman… so much rebel it got me getting out of heaven doors……

Brokenpieces

Screaming, yelling  Stop please stop, Don’t hurt her no more  She wasn’t built for it. Her body can’t handle it,  Or maybe it can, at least that’s what she thinks now. Just because a bone gets stronger after you break it, doesn’t mean it has to, The bone does get stronger, but it’s not the…

Threshold (For my sisters rejecting FGM)

I am seventeen The moon giggles shyly and caresses the skies Sipi Falls cascade in a wave of excitement. I waltz with the falls downstream A tinge of warmth engulfs me My feet rub… My future. The village awakes It is the rite season The search… She descends with a knife I grip my tears…

Men-struation

You don’t know the history of my pain.   I am Junub A woman in end-less men-struation Buying daily your pads to c-over and protect my skirt from stains I continue to bleed afr-aid to speak of my periods   But now I say, “I am in pain, help me.”   Silent guns shoot though…

Micropoems

Beauty There is beauty in stubbornness. in falling down, and picking yourself up Is it not the rising and falling of the waves that keeps the Ocean alive? ****** Find Yourself I provide you with water in a bowl, kneeling with love, Waiting for you to sip it all. Something about the way you Sip…