THE EASTAFRICANPOET

My lover can only love me behind drawn curtains. The bed must not creak or the neighbours will hear us. On Friday evening, when her parents come to visit, my lover cannot love me because they want her to marry a man. We all sit at the small brown rectangular dining table beneath the high serving-hatch that opens to the kitchen. My lover and I sit on one side, her parents on the other. She sits facing her father, who is tall and meaty. He laughs like a big drum. He eats like a big drum too; his inside is large, empty and hollow. He is shoving big ugali mounds into his mouth. I think that her mother must know, because mothers see the air that mixes between lovers. Her mother must know because she is studying me like a specimen. She narrows her eyes, tightening her brow at the same time. Crow’s feet choke the mole next to her left eye. Her face is lined around the eyes, but is otherwise as smooth and deep brown as a loquat seed. Small grayish bushes peep from beneath her blue head...

..but si when people look at me, they think me ni punk. Yes, because you’re very pretty. You giggle; it’s throaty. Like a laugh that won’t grow up. You want to talk. I want to stare. Yeah.. but you know I don’t like it. What? Being pretty or people staring? You look daggers at me. What do you think? Duuh! Silly. The staring. You slap my thigh. It stings. I perish the thought. Lucky me. My jeans are freshly scrubbed. You sit beside me, thighs touching. Yeah.. that’s why I pass here. My bro showed me this chuom here. Haina usororaji. True..this is better. I also really don’t like being watched. Now pass me my blunt. I dab silently, I’m thinking of you. The chemical euphoria slowly gives way to a silent calm. You know I’ve never had sex? Waaaah!!  I’m patronizing. You must know I won’t believe. You feel you have to tell me, I listen. I just feel like I should start when it’s right. But I know St...

This piece of haiku poetry is very personal. You’ve got to love the brevity that leaves so much to the mind. This is one of those that can be interpreted to mean something and everything. The Need Nothing satiates. Voids unfilled. These are the times.

Misikhu , Bungoma . Western Kenya. Aunty just came back from Makutano. She asked about a long lost family friend who lived around Kitale. 'On your way to Makutano maybe, I don't know.' I promised I'd try to get to them as soon as this pesky January rain abates. I'm also embarrased about meeting Ma'Dessy;  that long-lost-but-lately-found family friend who now resides around Kitale.Now I can’t go to her home without a lady I had bragged about being my wife. Anyway. I told Aunty Emily I'd marry two wives; so if one left I'd still have another to hold on to. Aunty chuckled. She does that when she's pitying my young naivete. 'Don't get more than one wife. It's all trouble. Juzi, I went somewhere to have tea but there was none...that's what they said.' I cut Aunty midway through her session by reaching for the volume knob on the radio. Soon "Ivo Ivo Ivo" was blaring and my head was bobbing to the raucous hip hop. Au...

I remember correctly How could I forget? I know now why the silence Hang loud in the air. I hated that. I was teetotaling, Teetering, fumbling.. You sipped blacks, I made do with the ciggies. You hated those by the way. He made you feel better I hid my face My room was messy Roaches, butts, ashes. I figured you hated those too. I remember; don’t worry. You were nervous, raw. It hang in the air These chemical concoctions out of our heads. I hated him, I just couldn’t tell. You know I wanted it I knew you wanted it. It was strange, this thing. How you devoured them. I hated that, Lord knows. There was going to be three of us. We did business We couldn’t afford messes. I drowned.

I lifted this jewel of a short story from the all famous kalaharireview.com. Where the funkiest African stories are told. “Gentlemen, we must move forward.” The Speaker said, hitting his gavel on the table repeatedly. He was screaming but his voice was drowned by the argument in the hall. “Order!” He screamed louder, rising to his feet and striking the gavel harder. The dull sound of wood landing on wood finally got the attention of members. The din receded gradually until the hall became silent. “Gentlemen” He began after allowing a whole minute to pass. “I don’t expect this kind of behaviour from you. If Celestials are acting this way, what makes us different from mere mortals?” He paused for a few seconds again, moving his head from one end of the room to the other, trying to make as much eye contacts as he could. Most of the heads were bowed low as if in guilt. “There must be something that differentiates us as Celestials.” He continued. “What do you think The Master will make...

36 countries confirmed participation on Woman Scream 2015 Women Poets International Movement based at the Dominican Republic, announces the first list of participating countries confirmed to join Woman Scream International Poetry and Arts Festival (March 2015). Male and female poets and artists get together to raise their voices against women violence on different cultural manifestations. The Woman Scream festival is launched in November, to celebrate the anniversary of both projects, and to commemorate the Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women (Nov. 25th). WS will have a special connotation that year. It’ll be dedicated to Mirabal Sisters (The Butterflies) using the theme: “Women of Light” to honor them. Hundreds of institutions, literary groups, poets and artists, take part of the Woman Scream worldwide chain of events simultaneously, starting March 1st to 31st (with over hundred events coordinated). Among the participating countries confirmed so far there are: Domini...

(Manisha – the Hindu god who symbolises intelligence and desire; also symbolises state of being – where you mind is, there your heart will be also) . We are driving home from a party when my teenage daughter Zawadi points, “Look, Mummy, Daddy’s new car….oh, oh,…” and then starts to fidget with my skirt, trying to distract me. It is 9 PM. I slow to a crawl. Sure enough, there sits my Lucas, in his beloved-above-all-else black BMW. He’s smooching a High Hairstyle. A style where wet hair is saturated with ultra-gel before a bushy horsehair chignon is plonked on top. When it dries, the hair is so hard it can dice unwary fingers….or lips. Nasty hair. Obviously nasty woman. Up to nasty business. Lucas took me to a place like this. Once. It is the kind of lowlife joint open 24-7-365 where you’re greeted by the happiest party of houseflies in the world. You then walk past the bar to a counter to select your chunk of raw meat. Behind this lies an enclosure euphemistically called KITC...

The day it happened dawned normally. Something should have warned me, I should have gotten an omen of sorts, maybe an owl hooting, or a dead lizard- or dropping the hot pot of Okro soup I was taking off the stove on to the table- or, hitting my left foot against a stone solidly buried in the ground. Anything. I remember clearly the first time I met her. I was eight years old and waiting for a quick breakfast of spaghetti and tomato sauce which Mama was preparing, before I could go to school. Papa looked at me over the top of the sun newspaper which he was devouring. ‘Sandra ’He said ‘Get me my glasses. I can’t read some of this…this thing they print these days. My eyesight is getting worse’. I quickly went to his room to do that. The drawer where Papa kept most of his prized possessions was the location and I opened the first partition as soon as I got there. I saw the case where he kept the glasses. The familiar fading coffee-brown colored case which beckoned at my hand. I almost ...

It was a departure of sorts, last time I saw them. Or maybe not at all. I had left sigh by sigh, breath by breath over the years. By the time my leaving party came, I was somewhere else entirely. From this place, I watched fairy lights being looped low over long tables and rose bushes being pruned. The matching china came out with the crystal glasses. The guards in our gated community were paid off to pre-empt noise complaints, as were the local police. Our racist neighbours were invited in time for them to book a night away. A credit card and a note on the fridge told me to go and buy a new dress (“At least knee-length, Kaba!!”). The entire dusty front yard was swept. Forthright, our maid, swept it once from the middle to the left and once from the middle to the right ensuring even distribution. She minced around the edges of the yard until she reached the right spot. Then she lovingly gave the earth a centre parting, like she was doing the hair of the daughter she seldom saw. Deftly,...