Like Clock Work Poem by Merlin Mwaura

Tick tock...
watch the clock,
time is moving...
the air is still.
Grand Father talking of his golden days,
when he was young and vibrant youth,
his days when milk was abundant,
doctors treated few patients.
because they grew strong,
they played and herded cattle,
They loved even in planned marriages,
and here even with our free will
can hardly last a relationship.
Politicians dreamed, like Tom Mboya,
and the brilliant minds of JM Kariuki,
but like clock work,
tick tock,
a robber came,
from hades and they call him death.

Tick tock like clock work,
I have played on a scrabble board,
won and lost on a few words,
because words to a poet are his feet,
take journeys in the pure parts of being
like hands to hold onto those who've listened.
I am a matrix that is complete,
ask, how is it?
I will tell you.
Because I found my inverse that makes me one,
makes me one when we multiply,
now I can play simple mathematics.
one plus one is two...
because my inverse made it true.
Matrix plus one is complicated,
and that is who I am!
my dear WIFE is my inverse,
so I can make simple mathematics,
so I can relate with simple forms,
like one!

Like clock work, tick tock...
time is flying by,
think of the positive,
dream of tremendous things,
why should something so beautiful,
waste itself away,
like the hooker on the streets,
that brilliant idea in your dreams,
write a CV to get in?
Start a CV to let others in,
people are waiting for your great idea,
so they can line up at your interview doors.
You know best, what's good for this country.

Remind what it is to rise up our Kenyan flag,
Sing our national anthem fluently,
Even if I was never a scout,
I will salute like a true Kenyan.
Enjoy my culture because that's what we have,
hiphop and others came the other day,
defining our generation, giving it voice...
but where are we when we get to sixties,
do you call your child, 'Mtoi'
or did you name her after your sweet Shushu
She is Mweni, Fatuma, Chebet, Njeri, Nyamwamba...
He is Osewe, Thuo, Kipkemoi, Juma, Kasaini.

Like clock work,
everything will learn to play in its place,
nature has a divine intelligence,
whether we capture it under a camera lens,
or in the shutting of our leads,
we cannot fail to see,
that everything is connected,
and in everything there is God.
The pope,
The bishop,
The Cosa Nostra,
The COMMON mwananchi,
it is all about the poeple,
we are all connected.
I did not choose to be here,
neither did either of us,
but out of a hundred million,
you found the egg,
and there aren't many people like you,
because the rest didn't quite make it,
There is only me and you,
and there is everything unique about us.

Like clock work,
we all know we are vulnerable,
so why do we act like we are not ready,
to live life in its full,
bring our dreams into reality,
unless ofcourse the world has little room,
for another Forbes's list from Africa.
another African genius,
another African Nobel Peace laureate,
Another African prophet...
A Kenyan freedom fighter,
another people's champion.
Like clock work, tick tock all the way...
do you think time will wait,
while we timid and cower from our place,
our lacuna...
our own place of authority,
Because if it is not this that we move our lives with,
then something great lies within,
that only needs two eyes,
one mouth,
an all our being,
to live,
to communicate.
To be.

Tick tock like clock work,
what are we waiting for?
Let us be great...
and be humble about it!