Thank You Mt Kenya
For milliards of tough years
You have stood in our midst
Unperturbed, indomitable
And you have enticed the rain
And it has showered our fields
Our ridges and verdant plains
And filled not only our rivers
But our streams and rivulets
And much else of our realm
For milliards of long years!
When the first rays of the sun
Gently slap your sleepy face
Urging you to part your garment
Of white and grey and sometimes
Darker cumulo-nimbus colours
Do you ever shy away and turn
As though from a sight unloved
Or summon your three peaks
To hide you from the earliest
Touch of a brand new dawn?
When I think of your numerous sacred grooves
When I dream of your twenty or so glacial tarns
When I fathom your five thousand metre height
And this right on the path of the equatorial sun
I am deeply humbled and promptly reminded
That the God of my people and of our cousins
Dwells up there untroubled by the elements
I am reminded, too, of the elephant highways
Which traverse our ridges on the way north-east
To the warmer grasslands of Nyambene Hills
I dare not look up to you
Without plenty of gratitude
I dare not hide my shy face
Without plenty of ingratitude
For I know and all of us know
That you have been our dear
And most beloved benefactor
That has withheld not a thing
That has stood by the people
Beyond measure, beyond all
Thank you for your tears
Thank you for your prayers
Thank you for your ice and snow
Thank you for your rivers and rivulets
And thank you, too, for your love
For the men and women galore
All children of all races and hue
Who inhabit for the time being
Limbs of your most splendid
And most bountiful slopes!
Copyright © Gerald Kithinji | Year Posted 2013
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