AN ODE TO GAIA

Gaia is weeping
Her heart shredding to pieces
Her voice coarse,no more screaming
Her golden and diamond tears, streaming
Down her face,on every phase
Like the mighty NILE
Flows from 'The Mountains of the moon'
Fathered by the great Alexandrine,Ptolemy
Which unlike then,drips no more
we have sidelined her like a lagoon...
Does to a sole island,Madagascar
Guess our kids will miss HER more
ALL her beauty,our ACTIONS have,faded away
What will we tell them?
We can't lay the blame on them

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Hate that we will always wish
To have her back
Like that beautiful sunset at dusk
Like that mystic aurora on the poles
No one,but us will save our souls
Let's save the trees and rivers
For that's the Future's call
We should abstain from Gaia's destruction
To sustain her for our future's affection

FIFTY YEARS

One, two…
It’s almost fifty
Like the seasons I come back
To haunt you, while you are sitting
In front of the cathode tube
Leaving you on your seat shifting
Is…
My malnourished frame
My born free life, never tamed
My still eyes
Staring straight into the lens
My strange cuisine
Of boiling roots and wild fruits
My sad story
Of poverty and lost property
Hot winds blowing
The earth bled off water
Poisonous snakes prowl
The day gets no shorter

Three, four ,five
It is almost fifty
Inside your newspapers
There is my usual story
Of high child mortality
Lawlessness and banditry
Of fallen fathers and brothers
Of stolen past and present

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Forty six, forty seven
Its now forty eight…
Forty eight years
Of economic marginalization
Disturbing history
And a forgotten people
You owe us justice
For brothers and fathers
Fallen at the airstrip
Their blood
Washed down the runaway
For sisters and mothers
Widowed by your guns

Forty nine, fifty…
Fifty years it is…almost
Since we got independence
All along we are stuck in the past
Successive governments
Have seen us outcasts
Our land
Dry , unforgiving
And pure wilderness
The “Northern Frontier”
How long should we die of hunger?
Get killed by bandits
Lose our children
Due to lack of primary healthcare
This is not fair
No schools
Poor infrastructure…
I can go on and on
Back to the 50 years
That you stole from us.

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My Rebel

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She wears no makeup
Only lip gloss to make her lips glow
She is proud of her hair
Only water relaxes her coarse afro
She scans fashion magazines
Only to mock prices of Gucci and prada
My rebel
Her wardrobe lacks stilettoes
All she collects is converse Allstar
Taylor gang like wiz khalifa
Her idol is Che guevara
All she reads is history and African literature
Her favourite sport is soccer
All she supports is Gor Mahia

My rebel
Knows about African socialism
Like she would have known her colours
Knows Paris for its museum and art
Like she would have known it
For its fragrance and fashion stores
My rebel
Partakes in shots of vodka
Without blinking an eye
Smokes that illegal plant
Every weekend we are bored
And want to get high

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My rebel
I`ll ask for no libel
No matter how you soil my name
I`d never want your tame
Like a bird
I want you free
For your love
I`d do anything even….
My rebel
I promise to love you until time ends.

Gone Baby Gone

Like Van Gogh`s starry night
Am starring into the night
Stars in constellations and galaxies, so far away
Twinkle with disappearing luminance
The air all around is full of incense
Making me to reminisce
The good, gone old days
Of big promises of immortal love
Of olive oil cascading down your torso
But now it is not so
I am like a devil falling
Fallen into an abyss of heathens
Clouded and darkened by sin and herecy
Overflowing with hate and untold suffering
But deep in my heart
I am harbouring
The sunlight days of our lives
The fun we had down at the coast
It is the good memories
That keeps me going
Every day I relive, the best moments
The worst, I hate the torment
So I have engulfed it
With fantasy and lies
That you are still here
But baby you are gone.....

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I wish I could forget
But like maple leaves in spring
Your memories come flowing
I hear your whisper
I feel on my body your caress
I recount you laughter
Looking up into the night
I see that twinkling star
And know that you are still here

Christine

Christine

This is to you my love

To tell you all in my heart

Known only to God above

I can’t stand to get hurt

Oh my gentle dove

I need you close, to my heart

Or I will starve

My sweet Christine

To me you are still hot

Like a girl who is sixteen

I can’t write like Winston Churchill

That sweet letter to Clementine

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But I can write you a love poem...

This poem

And stand all the waiting

For a piece of your love

Even if it will take forever

I will give up never

Tears sparkling your brown eyes

Makes me utter no lies

You brighten my life

Like a night full of fireflies

I want you pretty close

Just for once…

Here have this rose

Its fragrance is like our time

Short, sweet yet memorable

But love is priceless

Like the Mona Lisa

Strong, yet delicate

Like the tower of Pisa

I recall your gentle touch

Your sweet little words

Your protection like a safety hatch

If life was poker

Then you are the winning card

All along I have been a joker

Ending up this sad

But I have got to be real

Like a rocker

And tell you what I feel

Christine...

You are the best thing

That ever happened to me

IN CASE OF MY DEMISE

When I die
I know no one will cry
But you will miss me
That I am sure of..
I don’t know why
But like 2 pac
I have to do this
Write my thoughts
“In the event of my demise”

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Death is uncertain
Every second, every minute
Let`s appreciate before
The drawing of our curtains
Let`s not limit
What we want...what we hope for
In case of my demise
I gave you the reasons not to cry
For my fallen self
By all the things I lived for
Weed, hope and dreams of a revolution
Liberty, I really don’t know
What I all along lived for?
But it`s my conviction
That I lived for something

In case of my demise
I know no one will cry
But one thing I know
Someone will cry
Her tears
Like the Nile
Will flow down her cheeks
Her eyes will be red
For me… just me
Please let my mama cry
Don’t stop her, you are wondering why?
I am all she had
Her little boy…
The joy of her life
Her heart will never heal
Time can`t heal
Her world without me
In case of my demise
God all I ask is…
Let it be the right time
When my mother is old
Her face wrinkled and pale
Her back bent like the Kamba bow
Due to old age
In case of my demise
Let me die
When my mama can cry no more

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Legal Tender

There is this girl
Her body is slender
A wife material type of girl
Her lips so tender
Haven’t touched them yet
Because she is like a vendor
Not a vendor,a cat..
And wants nothing that will get her wet
out of fate
Because like a vendor
she wants the Legal Tender..
To give one a taste

I would give her all the stars
Up in the sky
And all the pearls
Down and deep in the seas
If I could…
But that’s just poetic
In reality,I have nothing to give
But my love
And I wouldn’t want her starved
So I work hard
That the future can be better
But she likes the good things
She wants the Legal Tender
To give one a taste

Someday… I know
My life will be better
Wonder if she will still be slender
A wife material
And her lips so tender
I would still take her
In reality,I would have nothing to give
But my lust
As I remember about that girl
When I was still young
My heart full of love
Because like her
She wants the legal tender
To give one the taste

RED BMX BICYCLE

There was a small boy
In the countryside
Who had a small red BMX bicycle
Kept in the store besides the herbicides
Every evening like a cycle
He would ride down the dusty road
The sun a yellow ball
on the west side
Glittering under the sun`s rays
Was that small
RED BMX BICYCLE

There was a smaller boy
In the countryside
Who had nothing…
Totally nothing
He was a friend to the small boy
Every evening like a cycle
He would wait by the dusty road
To have a chance
On the small red BMX bicycle
His face would be all smiles
Even after falling off that
RED BMX BICYCLE
One day at dusk
The smaller boy
Stood next to the small boy
And asked
“When you grow up, would you give me this bike?”
The small boy without thinking
Said YES..
There was a smaller boy
In the countryside
One night
He had a bad stomach ache
His mum wiping the tiny streams of tears
That fell from his small face
That was pale…
Due to dust from the dusty road
As he played with his the small boy
And rode on that
RED BMX BICYCLE
There was a small boy
In the countryside…
Now HE is all grown
And in the university
Far away in the city
That RED BMX BICYCLE
Now long gone
Given to some relative, I guess
If I could go back
To those days…
Those days with beautiful sunsets
Back in the countryside
Waiting for my chance
On my red BMX bicycle
Watching that smaller boy fall off
I would give him…
I would hand him that bicycle
And never expect it back
And watch him ride
Towards the beautiful sunset
On my red BMX bicycle
But if I can go back
All will be in vain
Because on that night…in the dark
He struggled with pain
His small heart couldn`t keep on
Outside there was rain
The gods possibly wanted to cleanse
All the evil that night
That took him away
Now I reminisce
As I keep moving on
About that smaller boy
And our small
RED BMX BICYCLE…
By Kamal Ogudah ©

Our Faded Flag

If flags could talk
How about flags of our fathers
Aged with time
Faded, to glory and misery
Is it a crime
If I tell the story
Of this faded flag

Over the years we have bled
Our patriots and country men
Tom Mboya`s, JM Kariuki`s and Pio Gama`s
We have massacred our people
Remember the Wagalla massacre
Blood on the runaway
Kenyans murdered by the Kenya army
Lets light this dark alley
Of the history of our army
And keep the red fading….
Our environment browning
Our people not getting any crowning
Poor than our fathers
The ruling elite
Politicking with our environment
Dry rivers, scorching sunlight
The green is fading…
Killing each other
Tribal animosity
Not accommodating one another
Hence shredding our white to pieces
Lets quit the blame game
And pick up the pieces
To whiten our white stripes
Because our white is faded…
Black were our ancestors
In our skin we have melanin
Even just a trace
The sun gives you the tan
If you are a European, indian or Arab
You will always feel black
Colour doesn’t matter
Our black can fade….
This is just but the tale
Of our FADED FLAG

STRANGER TO MY HEART

Like an empty face
From an alien place
I couldn`t put a name
This was a shame
But deep in my heart
I knew who you were
A stranger to my heart
Your hazel eyes
Told me otherwise
With the glow as you smiled
That I had to make you mine
And forever cherish you, Like mine
The name, I answer to
Come a new day
It is still the same
Stranger to my heart
Deep inside, a furnace of burning desires
Tells me what it requires
..just a piece of your heart
Stars are diamonds in the sky
Money can buy many things
But like the stars in a far away galaxy
I wish…wish for you to be mine
Money can`t buy me love
No matter how much I may have
Hopeless and wishing
I dashed for the corner
Bumping into you
Stranger to my heart
This was a new day
Sorry..I repeated the umpteenth time
You shaking your head
As we picked our sprawled documents
Standing up to sort them out
Light in the back of your eyes stood out
As you accepted my proposal
For making up to you over some coffee
That mistake, that accident
Of bumping into you
Is all it took?
That single incident
To make you… no stranger to my heart