SABA-SABA
I
31 killed in a nationwide protest.
I reject the truth of what I see
as smoke wafts into the heavens,
rocks marching firearms in a protest against brutality,
scars of corruption mapping the land
and our bodies,
against unemployment fencing cradled ambitions.
II
In the shadowed streets,
cloth masks from our bandanas
and old t-shirts
face off blasting tear gas canisters,
water cannons, riot shields, thick wooden sticks,
III
the Nairobi skyline witnesses in horror
as eyebrows reach for the other,
shattered bones
broken bricks
severed arteries
bullet wounds
a street hawker shot in the head,
a teacher dead in police custody.
IV
A thousand burnt offerings
yet you are not appeased,
writhing through homes,
houdini’n men&women
and all hands that criticize,
sirens wailing loud
as mothers cry out in the night,
V
whiplash marks
tracing grievances on our skin,
on the spirit of sons&daughters
cramped in the back of your vans.
The earth here is shallow
yet some of these names,
some of these names
shall never return unto us
again.