How do you touch the heart of the heartless?

Tags

child labour, child slaves, greed, human dignity, ICJ, individualism, justice, modern day slavery, politics, selfishness, sex slaves, world hunger

I have had enough talk
About slaves and the hungry
I have cried for the women
Who are lured abroad
with false promises of work and prosperity
and made into unpaid sex slaves
I have prayed for children snatched
from their mothers’ loving arms
and sold into harsh back breaking labour
never to feel pure unselfish love
let’s not talk about them I pray
let’s talk instead,
about those among us
who refuse to learn
from the hurt caused by the Trans Atlantic slave trade
lets shed light instead,
on the greedy sitting on thrones of power
the heartless who sell their children and sisters
Lets shoot video clips about this lot
And give them a platform to share their reasoning
For i have tried but failed to answer this,
How do you touch the heart of the heartless?
Or fill a bottomless well of greed?

Sometimes I doubt his existence

Tags

Baby Satrine, cancer, death, despair, Gunmen attack, Hope, Joy in Jesus Church, life, Likoni, loss, love, Mombasa, Satrine Osinya

Sometimes I doubt his existence
When innocent children
Have to fight cancer
And lose their loving mother
When so many irresponsible parents roam the earth

I doubt your existence I must confess
When hateful criminals break into a house
Raping and maiming a newlywed virgin
Before she consummates her marriage
Leaving an open septic wound that stirs
Whenever she is touched by her loving husband

I doubt his existence
When neighbours filled with hate
Behead a harmless old man
The head never to be found again
And his children are left with a headless body to burry

Forgive me but I do doubt your existence
When terrorists break into a church
Disregard the motherly arch made by baby Satrines mother
And pump bullets into mother and son

But then I see the miracle and skill
You’ve blest this earth with
When the bullet is removed from the brain
Then I find my way back to faith and trust
In you and humanity

who are you, who am I, who are we?

Tags

culture, dignity, encouragement, fate, karma, life, purpose, questions, self esteem

who am I?
allowed to come and go
sleep and awake
when others sleep to wake up no more

who are you?
to gauge and rank my skills
when I sat and developed myself
with the help of one or none

who are you?
to profile and write your story
of how you gave so much to the world
yet so little to your wife and children

who am I?
to say set laws and regulations for the nation
and govern the county
when my groin governs my being
delivering me to the arms of questionable desires.

who are you who am I who are we?
we are nothing
lucky to be here
favored by fate
I have no right to say you don’t belong
you have no right to say I don’t qualify
for if fate and the gods say we qualify then we do
I dare not doubt or contradict them
neither should you.

What next?

Tags

courage, determination, faith, happiness, Hope, life, living

Like the rising and falling of the tides
My hope and happiness fluctuate
I keep asking why me
But the answer never comes
Because the answer to that question
lies with somebody else
I revert instead to my inner strength
And ask myself
What next?
For in this question lies the push I need to carry on
What next?
This depression will pass
I am stuck in a jobless rut
Things refuse to fall into place
And it feels like my streak of bad luck
Is longer and fatter than the Nile
What next?

Are you a muntu?

Tags

africa, communication, development, love, philosopy, relationships, Ubuntu, worldview

I am a umuntu
Daughter of the bantu
Believer in Ubuntu
Therefore if you shout the greeting, ‘how are you’
And my answer be
‘I am well if you are well’
Be not surprised
For grandpa and grandma said
I am because we are
and we are because I am
therefore i will lift you up
and talk wellof you
for your praises are mine and mine yours
let us share our joy, sorrow and wealth
its only through this sharing
that can we tap into our humanity
and in our humanity
let us find our common happiness
and pride in the knowledge
that we were all created abantu
and only by enhancing anothers happiness
can a muntu find true happiness

If only…

Tags

cocaine, crack, drug abuse, gender, heaven, heroine, Hope, love, no more pain, rest, violence

I saw her in my dreams
Blood crusted all over her body
Her numerous wounds
Providing nourishment for buzzing flies

I saw him too, in my dreams
The drugs in his muscles and blood
Dimmed all reason
And vanquished all humane emotion
His goal, vision and mission
To inject more crack into his system
And since he did not work
His ‘beloved’ wife should provide him with the money

But she was beyond working
Not from drugs
But his abuse
And as he hit her for the second day now
She felt nothing
She was beyond pain
Infact,
Only her body remained
Her heart stubbornly beating
While her spirit happily soared up high

He didn’t see her battered body
He didn’t notice that she hadn’t moved for two days
He kept pestering and hitting to drive the point home

She lovingly kissed him
The spirit not body
Her eyes and his bright like Swarovski crystals
Love was in the air
His adoration for her oozed from every hair
And I wondered
Whoever invented drug abuse,
That changes one so loving into a submissive beast

I saw her body give up and the flies’ eggs on it
Turn to maggots
But I wasn’t disgusted by it
For I had had a glimpse
Of the splendid beauty
Of the souls that once inhabited those bodies
And I fervently swore
To ever proclaim the perils of drug abuse
If only…

suggest a title for this piece

Have some tea and cake

Tags

happiness, husband, marriage, options, priotities, Self, weddings, wife

I am now a married woman
With house and husband
And though I try each day
And ‘congratulations’ my hubby shouts
I seem to trust my own judgement
Which tells me I’m no good
I scrub and scrub the pans
And sit down for a worthy rest
But then I remember
The clothes
That need some folding
So up I go to fold them clothes
And in mid folding I notice the dusty surfaces
I hasten my pace
To get the work done
And my rest started
But the clock’s chimes
Signal that I need to start dinner
You have to have it on time
My grown up side tells me
‘cause you are a married woman now
With house and husband
But all the child in me is screaming is that I’m tired
So I sit down instead with some tea and cake

Hold on

Tags

courage, faith, Hope, inspiration, Self, success, tenacity

Sometimes you want to hold your head up
As though you are unbeaten
As though you don’t care about those whispers that seem true now
‘you can’t make it, you’re wasting your time’
Though you try as hard as you can
You find yourself standing in front of a huge mugumo tree
With a strong stout trunk
And wide and vast branches
In self pity you exhale
For the tree makes you realise just how small you are
You can’t surmount something so huge and majestic
You slump at its roots and fall asleep under its shade
You doze off
A seed shaken in the wind falls on your face
Jerking you back to the true reality
Once upon a time,
This tree that makes you feel so small
This huge tree
Started as a small vulnerable seed

Vacationing in heaven

Tags

death, faith, heaven, Hope, love, mourning, pain, separation, sorrow

The day before yesterday
I had a dream
I saw my sister, grandfather and uncles
Gone before us
Sitting under a guava tree, in a fruit forest
Conversing and laughing
I saw my grandfather wipe my cousin’s tears
And whisper
‘it is well,
You have given your children a home and an education
That’s the best you can leave your children with
so hush,
they will be alright.’
When uncle cracked a joke
And cousin Beldine looked as though she was about to cry again
Her father held her to his breast
he kissed her forehead and whispered that
the world will go on
Her loved ones will miss her
And cry for her now and then
But time will heal their wounds
And they will be alright
He then poked her and ran ahead in the sand
Beldine skipped along
And when she emerged from the cover of the fruit forest
Her eyes sparkled at the sight of
The most beautiful vacation spot in heaven…
I woke up and left them laughing and splashing in the sea

life has not always a happy ending

Tags

dreams, encouragement, faith, happy endings, hold on, Hope, jobseekers, love

Sometimes you apply for a job
And you’re so sure you’re going to get it
But the call doesn’t come
And hope fades away
Till you know for sure
That you are not going to be called for that job.

Sometimes you think you have found the one
And you build a house
With a white picket fence
And give birth to two beautiful children
Your husband and you love each other with vigour
And you are so sure that
Nothing on earth or in heaven will ever separate you
But you wake up from your dream
And the one turns out to be a lying scum bag
And you are left wondering
If the one will ever come your way
The children and white picket fence
Slowly fade back into oblivion.

Sometimes you are afraid to try
Because all trying has brought you
Is a series of disappointments
That’s okay, you are right to hesitate
Because life has not always a happy ending
But do try anyway
‘cause the happiness at the start and in between
May be worth more than the sadness in the end