Just You Know Mama Poem by Eric Mwenda

I dug trenches mama
not holes for potatoes
or maize
to await the rains

But trenches mama
enough to hold a body
crouched behind a gun

In darkness i peeped mama
trying to get a hold
trying like them
to shoot into nothing
but yield something.
I tried mama

I went to the other field
and left your labourers alone

I tried
ooh i tried
and tried
and tried mama,
i tried to hunt
with sons of hunters

Did you try it before me mama?
Did your hoe hard fingers
taste feathers of the arrow?
Or they did
before they met the hoe?

If not mama
Then know i tried,
i tried
and though
i brought nothing back
now i know