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Kilalo Mwashighadi Poem
In this land we had a President teacher
So was our nice neighbour next door
A fertile ground to hold holy such a duty
An easy guess : respect was far more important
Than what we thought of compensation for labour
That renders throats dry sniffing chalk dust
Only moon will tell when will settle the chalk dust
A sunset ago, a gavel gave hope to a teacher
After a century of glittering tearful labour
Now hope of a sincere deal beckoning at the door
No doubt heavier pocket will make light his duty
Money sweetens always what is already important
In every corner of the land you find among the important
A teacher who rides to the market on a bicycle full of dust
Because he has a family to cater for besides his duty
There is no story more familiar in Kenya than a teacher’s
He accepted to teach in a classroom without a door
And to inspire under such sick conditions of labour
The teacher has earned respect through honest labour
So we must put him up there among the important
Grateful we are to defender who opened him a door
To enjoy the fruits and economy of perfumed chalkdust
To walk an inch higher and remind all: “I am a teacher”
A demonstration of honour to an age old duty
We have finally woken up to our reality of duty
To those who polish our brains through hard labour
The doctor up the street and senator have been to a teacher
The syringe makes a doctor, the chalk makes a teacher important
I hope the doctor will know it is the stress and curse of chalk dust
When a tired smart man consults him behind a closed door
Hope is high up the sky, admin keeping a policy of open door
Who are we not to encourage him in this line of duty?
With further engagements we will settle the dust
And render hopeful around country the classroom labour
We will bring to town a statue in memory of a teacher
For all sectors to know he who holds the bottom is important
Hope the momentum will not blow on our faces some other dust
And cut short the celebrations with humiliation for our teacher
What this land has achieved in this regard is far too important
Copyright © Kilalo Mwashighadi | Year Posted 2015
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Kilalo Mwashighadi Poem
The books are open
to us who fatten
mice into pigs
even tho' u limp, brethren
crawl to the ward
take seat in the arena
shortly,
curtains will part
To you : Be brutal!
Copyright © Kilalo Mwashighadi | Year Posted 2016
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Kilalo Mwashighadi Poem
With everybody often so late
I am on a war path with loneliness
Been booed deaf by the lazy wail of curtains
And the chime of wall clock in recent days
Today I shy away from the beating
A gracious relief, with a light heart, eye carts me
Out of the eye of the house, a mean aperture at first
Till the image of red sore light zaps on my retina, a lone star
On a dome shaped hill where the telecoms planted it.
Close by, a homeless bat flaps wings in the
Gathering dusk to convert it to a dark night
The lone star on the mast, now must contact those late
Copyright © Kilalo Mwashighadi | Year Posted 2015
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Kilalo Mwashighadi Poem
A lot said of Almighty’s modeling
Just a few minutes to lunchtime ding
Persons like thee make any evidence of such perish
You came out hot from a specific idea
From the horizon of my world
Your image burns like the Maghreb sun
As a mortal of black earth that was once green
I made special effort to collect my mouth after a grin
Which you planted scientifically upon me through a glance
Oh my poor scotched heart how will it ever decode
The messages you send from your bosom?
Upon the part of my lips
Your sweet name leaps
Straight into niche of memory
Gazetted for cauliflory
Creating a colony
There with live pixels
May the heavens bless your viability!
Your flower to be sweet upon maturity
And your virtues be multiplied as your pollen
My nose will never tire to drag in your perfume.
Copyright © Kilalo Mwashighadi | Year Posted 2015
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Kilalo Mwashighadi Poem
A belt of blue cheese at the feet
Makes the mountain beyond Bachuma gate
Glow in that mysterious hues that all distant
Mountains carry upon their crooked humps
A wall behind which the Mombasa sun sheepishly hides
Until the herders of the low lands suffocate it with dust
From a thousand pairs of hooves, then it rises up the mountain
That splits a people into two Counties, a farmer and a nomad
The watchtower of our fore fathers
Against animal and fellow man
That mountain saved lives
And became a shrine
For the exaltation of HE who curved it
From raw matter, embellished with caves
That invites humanity from E and W to drop jaws
A fair day will beckon from this mountain
With orange smile of a sun eager to ascend into sky
A dreary one will keep you waiting, encumbered
By a shroud of fog, that smoky mesh that covered
Burnt sacrifices in the golden days, yet a day
Of profound beauty, as colourful as a people tending a field of crops
Watered by the mountain spring, will emerge
The mountain of peace, for the elders swear by it
While mending feuds, Will remain forever
Its work among the creatures of earth undone
Interminable strife betw’n man and beast
Getting louder by day in the corridors of Tsavo Park
May the stony humps echo the survival anthem
Before the giggle and belch of hyenas drown it
Herders of low lands, for a century, scrutinize the mountain’s shadow
To stay off hoof breaking haste driving their speckled animals to rest
That mountain will be standing there tomorrow
Waiting for the sun and rain
It will hear man sobbing
It will listen to birds singing
The hyena will growl
It will not hear
Copyright © Kilalo Mwashighadi | Year Posted 2016
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Kilalo Mwashighadi Poem
After mid morning coffee
will stretch out to the store
My piano to fetch
spread my fingers by a fine degree
You're invited to bow a little
for today all honour must go to the birds
It will be a melody of gratitude
to the aves given us by heaven
For their everlasting beauty upon earth
Upon the inspiration of blooming flowers
Birds take to the skies in radiant plumes
bejeweling the everyday dome with enviable
patterns, copied from millions of miles away
So here I hit the beats of beauty for the birds
to complement the fine melody of a bird-song
that invites daybreak and adorns dusk
like fine wine up the hills, making man suffer loss
why was such beauty not given him?
Bringing tidings of peace from your world O birds
whenever man gets crazy wanting to own your world
of colourful fruits, sweet grains and plumes of pride
You hover over his head, looking up, sees his folly,
Repents
Long curved beaks,short bills,sharp, obtuse
and your blessed fore limbs,
the sails for your voyage
across oceans and lands
All you will ever need
You know how lucky you are!
You love it, I sing it
Echo my tune like the baobab
Will you?
This got to be a melody of kind wishes
for all the birds of skies and seas
Copyright © Kilalo Mwashighadi | Year Posted 2015
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Kilalo Mwashighadi Poem
Antenna burning from red flowery scents
Bees, the epitome of hard work, rise early for fresh harvest
A radiant sunflower waves in the garden to welcome the workers
To yet another day full of sunshine and sweet nectar
Purring in a war like dance, they fill paws with pollen
In a buzz and merriment disguising the journeys
Of labor upon the wings of a tiny insect
The chain of life comes together to a picnic
In flowing gowns of yellow and black
In a stretch of African woodlands
Under skies, along riverbanks
Lament not the displeasure of a sting
Be grateful for juicy oranges and wild berries
Whose flowers conceive from bee dance on gay petals
Tire not from the buzz
It‘s the nature of life
If you do, soothe your nerves
With the fragrance of wax
That rides upon the breeze
From the picnic of bees
27/09/2016
Copyright © Kilalo Mwashighadi | Year Posted 2016
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Kilalo Mwashighadi Poem
Silence.
Let us remember Julia
Thank you for coming to be with us
Dear Sis, a succulent bud that decorated
our family tree for barely two decades
We cherish the thoughts we have of you
Conversations we shared
Unfinished meals in big plates
Energy to skip a rope all day long
Now, your young yet grey grave
is out there in the lonely yard
provoking sullen clouds whose rain
you will not be able to run away from
In our hearts, you're sheltered still.
Copyright © Kilalo Mwashighadi | Year Posted 2016
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Kilalo Mwashighadi Poem
Like a lazy patient serpent
Machines line up to an infinite stretch
Yonder is Nairobi, barely minutes
Away, only if traffic would thaw
No option but enjoy the engines' hum
Copyright © Kilalo Mwashighadi | Year Posted 2015
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Kilalo Mwashighadi Poem
Here, where the sky is so close,
the deep shadows of the hill have
taken away our great uncle
A family love,
conciliator,
firm of authority,
Shield of wisdom.
We weep to usher gladness of comfort
Thereafter, we will pray:
Perpetual dew
through the Mercy of God,
that Impeccable care,
Tranquility, glory from Grace,
Love and affection, guardianship
unto our faithful ancestry
Blessedness of Eternal repose
Alav ha-shalom
Copyright © Kilalo Mwashighadi | Year Posted 2019
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