Reminiscences

In quiet emotions

Mortified cold

Empty of all living reflections

Still, on his bottom

Tucked

On the traditional stool

With his lonely gazing eyes

Fixed on the field

Where he had watched them play

The memories of yesteryears

Flooding his mind

Like it was only yesterday

He sat, his chin erect

Perturbed by the wind of time

Of dotted growing graves

Taking their places assertively

In his deserted homestead

Like ant hills unrelenting

To a waken his lose

Drawing to his eyes

Filtering tears of pain

That finally streamed his cheeks

In painful reminiscence

Of their past together

 

Seduction

Lush lands so vast

Alluring and exorcising

Captivating imaginations

Beautifully laid

With valleyed landscapes

And rifted pathways

Its curvatures seducing

With hills and gullies

Standing like a pair

Each hugging the other

Like Siamese twins

In a seamless flow

Kissing the thinning skies

Into a union of mates

Marrying off the earth to the heavens

The tea lands of rift valley

So vast, yet so seducing

 

My will

When I will be gone, honour my name

Release me and let me rest

Closer by my mothers grave

Set me free and let me go

If I am to die, appease my maker

Mope and mourn for me

And set on a simple trunk
Send me back in reunion with the earth

When I will be gone, take me back home

Before the sanctity of my elders       

And let them chose the spot of my new home

Where amongst the dead, you must lay me to rest

If I am to die, don't tamper with my spirit 

But let my peers sing in my praise
With no details to my journey

Wail and chant away your sorrow

When my time comes, set free my soul

Mark all the ceremonies

Sit my grave with scented roses

Light the fires to warm my night vigils

When my time comes, the drums must play

And if you must, eulogize me in decorum

Bury me with the honour of my age

But set me free to wonder 

 

The crowd

I’m not one of them

But am swayed

Craning my neck in vain

Murmuring loud enough

Mimicking in eagerness

In the same breath and strength

But I am not one of them

Am fighting and shoving

Elbowing my way

My heart thumping in trepidations

Like one of them

Picking my share of tales

Keen with agitation

But I am not one of them

Running, standing still

Sweating in frustration

Trying to rush

Like one of them

Digging deep into the upsurge

Eaten deep into the crowd

Consumed in their madness

But I am not one of them

Yelling absurdities

Caught in their rage

Like one of them

Am absorbed

My tempo rising

But am tethered

Acclaiming and applauding

But I am not one of them

 

Rowing oar

Up the stream

The flow ebbs

Its caressing currents

Washing them along

Sweeping each across

To carry them a mile

Flowing downstream

In a rapid course

Rushing and gushing

Mixing the emotions

And swelling their desire

Pouring over

To burst its limits

In stronger tides

As the oar rows

Pounding

Deep into the waters

Splashing in quick thrushes

Each drawing roars

Enervated

In unmatched satisfaction

 

Which is Love

Why is my heart an orphan of love
That it must yearn for its trappings
Abandoning virtue for lust in the night
And chasing after vanity after every dawn 
But which is love
That my heart must seek
Is it a repelling evil or a compelling good
That will consume me in its illicit desires
Or draw me into the throne of its empathy
To which will my heart endear
Is the greatest evil of love passion
And its greatest good compassion
But which is love
To which must my heart sacrifice
Is it to passion which is a thief of love
Or to compassion that earns the love of others
But which is love
That my heart must want

I sit and watch

I sit and watch

Tears covering my cheeks

With a fading smile

A mixture of pain

And an all distant memory

A childhood we shared

The love of a sibling lost

I can only sit and watch

I sit and wonder

Long into the nights

With unfading desire

To reach out and call

As the distant memories return

Of a childhood now lost

Tears washing my face

Yet I can only sit and watch

I sit and drift

A weak painful smile cracking

Memories from the past

Of a childhood now buried

And a longing for your return

For a chance to unite

Just once more

So I sit and watch