We the young. Taught to dream. Taught to be the leaders of the tomorrow. Tomorrow is a moving target. We the young.Taught to work. Work. Work. Work. and then be tested on the things we have been working on. We the young.Taught to dream. Dream specific dreams, none out of what is not expected….
“I would like to look pretty tomorrow”
Pause.
“But I don’t even have a nice dress”
Thinking.
“Wear love”
He whispers.
“Why not wear love? You look beautiful in love”
I smile.
How about that!
I love to be called dada
I am older than you
Have lived more days than you
I love to be called shangazi
Your father is my brother
Though we speak no more
I just love the sound of the name
The prestige
Shame on me!
I love to call you baba
But I cannot
I am unworthy to be called your daughter
I cannot call you my baba
I do not love you
Not as I should.
I love my comfort
More than I care about your distress
I love my ease
More than I am concerned of your unrest
I am a guest in my own house
Unfamiliar with the affairs of my home
And I dare call myself a mwana?
Names are not titles
They are relationships
Names are not titles
They are responsibilities
Forgive me.
Time is not on my side
I thought I would have an easy ride
Plenty of time to decide
Should I go left or should I go right?
Should I just wait, hope it will be alright
But time left me standing there
She didn’t wait for me to make up my mind
She didn’t give options to rewind
And make a wiser choice
I stood there and raised my voice
Dear time, wait for me
My dear friend we need to agree
Which road should I take?
Which one will be a heart-break
Which promises are only fake?
Dear time, my life is at stake!
Which one is a waste of time?
Which road is perfectly mine?
But time is not on my side.
I stop. I think. I rethink.
I go back and pack
Only to realize
Time knows only one way – forward
Time was not on my side
Worry not
Tomorrow will take care of itself
On money or on good health
Wondering how to generate wealth
Worry not
Tomorrow will take care of itself
Trust in God, he has already been there
He dwells in the end of eternity
He has clapped and danced at infinity
What has worrying done for you?
Is there chemistry between you two?
Divorce him immediately!
And trust in the author of time
Trust the one who knows each strand of your hair
Can you add a single minute to time even if you dared?
I thought so.
Raise your feet and chillax!
Ends will meet, relax!
Worry not my friend
Tomorrow knows it well
To take care of itself
My heart betrays me
I thought it is for me
I thought we have lived together
Long enough for it to know me
Well enough
To think what I would want it to think
To behave as it is supposed tobehave
But it dares to betray me
It dares to spread lies about me
Lies I tell you! Lies!
Cause how can I think this way?
How can my heart not want to pray?
But curse another man
Move from the Author’s original plan
It dares to desire things I cannot dare say
It dares to inquire of my mind’s skills
To make way
For its’ evil mischief and schemes
Like sour milk gone bad
Like an empty grave that never had
Life to claim pride of
Is so, when I try to make a comparison
Of you my heart to my soul
I am the branches
You are the vine
The same plant can’t yield
Orange juice and wine
I am the branches
You are the vine
I remain in you
To remain divine
“My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.”
“I am the Bread of Life. The person who aligns with me hungers no more and thirsts no more, ever.”
- Jesus, The Messiah.
Maize flour and water
They feed your cells
Pump your heart
Help you sleep well.
Like batteries to a car
Like a heart to your body
Like the sun to the earth
Is this meal that gives birth
To insight and foresight
Seeing beyond the physical
Knowledge and wisdom
Breaks chains and gives freedom
I am the ugali of life
This is more than just earth
This is more than mere breath
It is total reincarnation
Of myself in you.
Of my love in you
Of my mind in you
Of my faith in you
Of my peace in you
Of love
Not be choosy and picky
On whom to die fore
Of mind
To see wholeness in emptiness
To begin from nothingness
Of faith
To be assured without evidence
To be at end while standing at the beginning
Of peace
To be calm in a storm
To know you were with me when
The storm came to being.
Come and buy without money
Come and eat without cooking
Come and drink and never thirst
Come and discover in my deep
A well that has no end
A paradox of life
Eat and you shall live
Feed on my words
My will is your life
May it be pleasing to you
To taste food that is sweeter than honey
Be enriched than with what can be bought by money
Satisfied, not with possessions
Gratified, not with impressions
But glorified by choosing not to be glorified
Man shall not live by (earthly) ugali alone
But by every ton of it that comes from me.
Roald Dahl isone of my favorite authors. A very wise man, he was.
this.
He sat for 5 days
hunched over a desk
his back against the sunUnshaven beard
Wrinkled sleevesA waste paper basket
buried beneath a pile
of charcoaled papyrusOn the sixth day
The artist aroseHis masterpiece was
impeccably intricate and
beautifully symmetricalFramed with Eden
He called it Adam
April—Poetry Month (today’s poem chosen by Tishon Woolcock)
Safia Elhillo: Questions for John Coltrane, from his saxophone
Interview: http://wellandoftenpress.com/blog-post/the-love-child-of-frida-kahlo-and-dmx-an-interview-with-safia-elhillo
:)
I love to hold his face
Feel his cheeks in the palm of my hands
I love to feel his warm blood race
As every hair in his body stands
To applause that she has seen his eyes
She has known how tender he is when he cries
And he cries, a lot when his eyes meet hers
Every blink captures a phenomenal picture
The beauty that her soul carries
When she looks at his face
I am alive
When you kiss my soul
With thy tender lips
When your redplum flow
Mine eclipse
I am alive.
When I yield to the world that is unseen
And you decode every cell and every gene
You make me alive
I walk in you
I walk through you
My feet are firm in your heart
I live in your breathe
I live by your word.
You make me alive
When you leave me
Only time leads me back to you
Grace keeps me locked in you
It’s keys you have placed
In your memory of forgetfulness
When you kiss me
With thorns of your love
And engulf me like the wings of a dove
I am alive.
I am alive in you.
