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Best Poems Written by Kilalo Mwashighadi

Below are the all-time best Kilalo Mwashighadi poems as chosen by PoetrySoup members

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Details | Kilalo Mwashighadi Poem

In Support of a Kenyan Teacher

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

Details | Kilalo Mwashighadi Poem

Letter To Kenyan Electorate

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!

Details | Kilalo Mwashighadi Poem

Outside My Window

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

Details | Kilalo Mwashighadi Poem

To Julianne

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.

Details | Kilalo Mwashighadi Poem

That Mountain

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

Details | Kilalo Mwashighadi Poem

For the Birds I

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

Details | Kilalo Mwashighadi Poem

Bees

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

Details | Kilalo Mwashighadi Poem

Epitaph For Julia Wangama

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.

Details | Kilalo Mwashighadi Poem

Coming To Nairobi

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

Details | Kilalo Mwashighadi Poem

In Memoriam Great Uncle Patrick

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

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