My Mother's Gift Poem by Tony Adah

A porcelain cup gray my mother gave me
This my inheritance
From my dear mother
Who used it to drink her tea
Of lemon grass and scent leaves
She drank this without milk and sugar
As munitions against mosquito bites
Of late she added Swedish bitters
Which she drank and kept a scowling face

She gave me the porcelain cup
Gray as it look
And I cherish it
Not for the concoction she boiled
In an earthenware and drank
But a memorial she made for her son
I guided it jealously and kept it among
My valuables and whispered tributes
To my mother who has just gone.

Those who caught me at this prayer
Thought my success derived from the porcelain cup
For everything I touched turned into prosperity
And the folks called it name: kabangatende
Which is believed to be a symbol of prosperity
I wake up early morning
Moving towards the whetstone with my cutlass
Making noise against the stone
And I call upon the folks
To come and listen to the noise of prosperity
As I leave for the bush to give my sweat
Sinews and thews to my farm.