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Daniel Ayiro Poem
Sometimes I feel I know nothing about life
But I do know something about Kenya
I come from the gustily, hilly terrains of rural Ingavira
Where huts form bungalow sorts of flawless beauty
An ambiance of warm soothing atmosphere
And all my life
My home has been here, yes here. Kenya.
I’ve gone to school with Patels and Mohammeds
Stole pencils that belonged to Cheptoo and Mutisya
Their rubbers had no name tags either
It was outright
We were brothers and sisters of a beautiful nation
Through those dusty years
Growing up playing kalongolongowith my peers
I loved being dad
And mum was mostly always a Taita nyako a.k.a Wakesho
Her tiny waist entangled with a yellow leso
Laced with a Swahili proverb that read
‘Mtaka cha mvunguni, sharti ainame‘
She served us uji
In Cocacola bottle tops
And we drunk it like our fathers would
Sipping every imaginary drop into our heads
Packed mud in sachets of goodie-goodie
And the wooden block that was the TV
Screened our richness in its silence
I do remember brikicho
How I used to follow Mwende everywhere she used to hide
We always got found together, tipo!
Whenever mama cooked chapati
I always had to steal a piece
And run out to share it with Mumbi
Achieng got jealous most of the time
But I loved her still
They had to take turns
Over who would play ‘mother’
No one knew
One day they would make beautiful wives
Wafula was my best friend in primary school
He always passed me the ball whenever it got onto his foot
It was enchanting
And Kipchirchir made sure I didn’t score
Taught us that life is a battle
And we would laugh about it on our way home
Joking to each other
You could never feel alone
Waithera…
She wrote me my first love letter
I was a shy lot
Growing up from the ghetto
Coming to terms with the realities of life
That adolescence is real
My little omera begun to bubble up
She faced me with such gusto
And in my innocence
Got into my skin to hide
I love it when we sit together
To talk about our country’s tricky politics
And our funny love lives
Laughing at ourselves in full candour
Life makes more sense this way
Than beefing hatred into our hearts
Over five people who don’t care about us!
I love it when I cry on your shoulders
Unashamedly
Seeking for solace
In my drunk sorrows
Because you are my Kenya
And I’ll need you more tomorrow
Please,
Do not judge me because of where I’m from
I love you for who you are
My tribe should not be my scar…
Copyright © Daniel Ayiro | Year Posted 2020
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Daniel Ayiro Poem
I know you are a champion
You have conquered fields and won crowns
You have been carried up by crowds
Walked on deserts,
Touched your tongue on burning coal
And eaten hot pepper, bare
Been happy and you’ve frowned
Been lost and found
You have flown above clear skies
Had clouds singing, calling you out
You have swum, you have drowned
I have no single doubt
That you have dined with men so profound
You have touched greatness with your bare hands
Sung songs only angels could sing
I know the paths you have walked
That your back has wings
You have eaten with kings
Rubbed shoulders with mighty human beings
Your words…your words are living things
You swallowed wisdom alive
And you, you have thrived
That God knows your name
Only one thing you haven’t done in your entire life
To die
But do not be fooled
You can still be taught
Lied to, even killed
There are paths you are yet to step with your feet
Foods you are yet to eat
A God you are yet to meet
Places you are yet to sit
Dark corners in your heart, yet to be lit
And a past you can never delete
There are trees you are yet to see
Love you are yet to feel
A being you are yet to be
A heaven… you are yet to enter
You can still be told
So while you can, listen
Be gentle, be bold
There’s a lot of life cooking in your kitchen
To this world do not be sold
And fathom
A soft heart never grows old, only big
And the only way to be big
Is by being small
Be the meekest bird in your flock
But most of all
Just be a child…
©Ayiro
Copyright © Daniel Ayiro | Year Posted 2020
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Daniel Ayiro Poem
As Kenya lay on the floor at Club Envy with her lungs burning and filling up with blood from being shot by an unknown person she thought her life would never end like this. Kenya's tears started to flow as she thought of the years she spent slithering with snakes. Her job at the BNB Bank made it easy to launder money for the Black Crime Syndicate. It was six years ago in the month of June that her life took a downward spiral.
Upset at the thought of being late for work Kenya floored the gas pedal. As she passed by the slow moving drivers weaving in and out of traffic Kenya hoped she didn't get a ticket. I just had to stay up late watching the marathon of Funny Man. Now I got to race the clock and pray I don't get stopped the police thought Kenya as she sped past the other drivers. As Kenya pulled into the BNB Bank's parking lot she checked the time.
"It's 7:55am. I made it within five minutes" said Kenya.
Kenya got out of her car and walked through the bank's glass doors. As time passed the employees of BNB got the bank ready for the public. One of the three people that arrived at the time of opening was a new face. Mmmmmm yummy thought Kenya as she walked up to the tall light skinned man.
"Hello sir how may I help you?" asked Kenya as she eyed the man up and down.
"My name is Malik Maxwell. I would like to open a checking and a savings account" answered the tall light skinned man.
"Mr. Maxwell please follow me to my office" said Kenya.
As Kenya and Malik sat in Kenya's office filling out papers Kenya made it up in here mind that she would get to know Malik on a personal level.
After a day's work Kenya got behind the wheel of her BMW and started he drive home. On her way home Kenya called her best friend Jewel Stonewall.
"Hello Jewel how are you?" asked Kenya with one hand on the steering wheel and the other hand holding her cellphone.
"I'm doing great Kenya. What's up?" answered Jewel as she did one of her client's hair at her salon the Golden Scissors.
"Are we still on for Saturday?" asked Kenya.
With a confused look on her face Jewel asked
"Is the day Friday already?"
"Yeah girl what day did you think it was?" responded Kenya.
"To tell you the truth Kenya I thought the day was Thursday" said Jewel.
"No Jewel it's Friday. I'm glad I have a friend who owns a hair salon" said Kenya.
"You better be thankful. I'll talk with you later Kenya" said Jewel.
"Ok bye Jewel" said Kenya.
Copyright © Daniel Ayiro | Year Posted 2020
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Daniel Ayiro Poem
The human heart…the young human heart. I look at our lives, the confusion we live in. Falling in and out of love, having friends..with benefits…dreaming of perfect relationships…unrealistic ones. Sometimes I wonder what kind of children we’re gonna make if this is the world in the 21st Century. You and I have very dark secrets; secrets we’ll not be proud of if our to be spouses heard. We have a struggle in which we are battling in. The fight is intense. It’s hard to begin a relationship. We find ourselves starting many fires at once, trying with many people. Sometimes our efforts end up backfiring, and sometimes, we hook up with one person. Other times, all of those people want to hook up with us, and we’re left confused over who to choose and who to leave out. Then we end up hurting hearts which thought we would connect while in the real sense, we were only playing trial and error.
There is no formal manual to the rules of dating. Different things work out for different people, save for those which all of us must do while trying to get intimate with someone for a relationship to have a strong base. But unfortunately our relationships are not strong. Perhaps we don’t even know what falling in love really means. One day we are so much into someone then the fire burns out in our watch and we do nothing about it. We hop into someone else hoping that something serious will come out of it, and then…our hopes just remain that…hopes.
The search for the right person is sure frantic. A willing heart would keep doing it till that person turns up. Problem is it’s hard to know them. By the time you realize you’re in the company of the last person you ever wished for, you have given so much to the point of almost selling out your whole self. Heartbreak sets in, for the umpteenth time, that you’re probably used to it now.
What’s the real problem with us young people? Are we too impatient? Too unsure even of ourselves? A wake up call is urgently needed. What’s with the queer settling norm of sleeping around with people with whom we are not emotionally attached to? More so, our friends? Are we simply telling ourselves that it’s the best way to enjoy sex and have a good life while escaping the perils of being in a committed relationship? I pity our generation. But wait…what’s next?
Somebody needs to wake up from slumber! We need to be very conscious of the kind of people we let into our lives. These blind entangles we web ourselves in only drive us to doom. Then we are the very people who will insinuate that true love does not exist, while we are the very ones who extinguish it. It’s time somebody stood for what is right, whether that will make us lose friends and gain foes, but what is worthy is worth it. Picture your children tomorrow, ask yourself if you would like them to be like you. And who are you anyway? Do you even know yourself? Am I talking to someone? Arise from slumber I say!! Stop gambling with your life! You know you don’t deserve what you’re putting yourself through.
Copyright © Daniel Ayiro | Year Posted 2020
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Daniel Ayiro Poem
Dear You,
I’ve been having funny dreams lately. I see you walking into my life with parachutes and lots of bags – baggage. Yes, I know we are about to fly, but are you ready to carry my luggage too? I’ve been born and raised in closed boxes and where I am now is a place of retribute; I’m paying tribute to past pains by living in an ocean of good things – happy deeds and poetry.
I’m not sure if anyone taught you how to love. But the man in me is a boy who loves to child. I love playing with mud and dancing to Awilo Longomba in the middle of the quietest nights; the gloom of the earliest mornings. I will sing to you on the first phone call I make you in the morning because life is music and I’m the lyrics. I pray that you are a good dancer. You don’t have to know how to shake your African treasures but at least know how to dance to words. If you could listen to the tunes in my speech, and I, the vibrance of the sound that comes out of your expressions, and laughter, then we are going to Rome together. No, Nairobi; my home. Do you have a home?
I’ve been to many relationships; met bold and beautiful girls and women. It’s nothing to be proud of. Through it all, I learned that there is a selflessness that is needed in order to give someone your heart. Emotions are expensive. To sell them to anyone takes lots of nerve and risk. We love wearing clothes and masks that cover our souls so as to create false impressions of a life we do not own. Well, I don’t want to wear clothes around you. I want to be as naked to you as I am to God, woman.
Yours,
Dan
Copyright © Daniel Ayiro | Year Posted 2020
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Daniel Ayiro Poem
I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where. I love you simply, without problems or pride: I love you in this way because I do not know any other way of loving but this, in which there is no I or you, so intimate that your hand upon my chest is my hand, so intimate that when I fall asleep your eyes close.
I want to see you. Know your voice. Recognize you when you first come ’round the corner. Sense your scent when I come into a room you’ve just left. Know the lift of your heel, the glide of your foot. Become familiar with the way you purse your lips then let them part, just the slightest bit, when I lean in to your space and kiss you. I want to know the joy of how you whisper "more".
But I love your feet
only because they walked
upon the earth and upon
the wind and upon the waters,
until they found me
“If nothing saves us from death, at least love should save us from life”
Copyright © Daniel Ayiro | Year Posted 2020
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Daniel Ayiro Poem
There was a sun that shone on my shoulder
Her friendly rays sparkling
Our hands flirted, unashamedly
Drawing love hearts in the profound air
The grass on which our souls dined
Flowery,
Drinking the enriching dew
That spilled its wondrous magic
Upon our naked innocence
Only yesterday
I sat by the ocean shore
Watching you swim
Into the orgasmic oblivion
That was our imperfect sea
Of beautiful dreams
Only yesterday
I dined in the sail of your heart
Now a distant boat,
Fading away gently, yet painfully
Like a sinking ship with gold aboard
Your streets bloomed with colour
Whose vibrance my imprudence killed
Now my sorry eyes break into water
Sail, love, sail
We shall meet
On the other side of uncertainty
If the ocean tides us do not awash
Copyright © Daniel Ayiro | Year Posted 2020
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Daniel Ayiro Poem
Man is hate
Man is discontent
Man is ****
Man is malevolent
Man is ****
Man is death
Man is fear
Man is pain
Man is wrath
What kind of man do you want to be as asked by God?
The man answered. I do not want to be a man
God answered
You are neither
You can be a God
But first you must learn to be a MAN.
Copyright © Daniel Ayiro | Year Posted 2019
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Daniel Ayiro Poem
Dear You,
Do not be swayed by my words; I’m stubborn. My tough head will drive you nuts occasionally. I’ll be the last person you want to see or talk to on some days. I have a poor memory and could have the tendency of forgetting some things you tell me, though at least not your birthday. But I’ll forget the date of our first kiss.
I cherish the idea of chivalry. It’s the same way you feel like a woman to serve me food. I’d like to live in your world; plant flowers and make dams on your soil, so I could have a garden to come back to for heavenly fragrance, and a place I could come quench my thirst when life gets me so thirsty. In my mind and heart, there’ll be a fountain of endless waters that wait for you to draw them whenever you feel like. Things won’t always be rosy, I know. They shouldn’t. We haven’t the right to heaven yet.
I’d like to know your language, so I could fathom the best diction to write you poems that would make earthquakes in your heart. I’d like to listen to your many words, and questions, even though I will not have answers to a majority of them. What I want to enjoy is seeing you comfortable in your skin; awashed of insecurities that hinder you from being the best woman alive.
I be brave, you be brave. One of us falls, the other picks them up. God is the center of our crimson chord. I know you want this like I do. Let the poetry begin.
Yours,
Dan
Copyright © Daniel Ayiro | Year Posted 2020
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Daniel Ayiro Poem
The heart sparkles with emotions that very time you’ve found someone new. It’s like a whirlwind that hits you! You want that feeling to stay infinite. It tastes special, fragrant and unique. It gets into you the more you spend time with them. We all love it. Oh! Even the aged. It respects them not.
There are those funny things we find ourselves doing for the people we love most either to attract their attention or simply to express our affection. You will call or text at 3a.m, live on debts just to buy them something they really treasure, talk to them for the longest hours, delay assignments just because you want to hear them speak, look into their eyes or something, hold their hands in public to show everyone else how much they belong to you alone, and alike. We know these things, we’ve all done them.
Copyright © Daniel Ayiro | Year Posted 2020
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