Not Yet... Poem by kelvin karani

NOT YET…
1.
It’s a century now
Since sand sucked blood
And ate antagonizing ants
As a people not so brave
Took to the tiny forests,
Afraid of civilization

A good chief died diligently
Leading to arrest of the Six.
Forest dwellers intensified
Their madness and confusion
Butchering and eating oppression
And all its annoying apologists.

Fifty two sired sixty three
And hope greatly germinated
But years, not even three
Passed before a beastly grin
Replaced leaves lusciously green.
The tree sprouted to wither.

Leaders lauded before parturition
Left humanity at their doors
And devoured the delicacies
Never throwing a crumb to masses.
Tired, disgruntled, disillusioned
Wanjiku wailed silently, “it’s hopeless.”

Seventy five trudged in quietly
Carrying with it a bud of hope
But as the flower readied to blossom
Down it dived in a deadly drop.
Hope hurriedly ran to its home
Leaving Wanjiku at her sudden stop

The tree three and one years later
Nursed another bud- equally promising.
But as the sun shone, sadly it died
And again angry Wanjiku wailed
Bitter at life and her sickly self
Life is carried like a madman’s rags.

Days crawled for the poor woman
Bringing no ray of hope with them
She craved for a messiah, the chosen one
To rescue her from her trivial troubles
She was Ramah ages and ages away
Wailing in the wilderness for rescuing.

Like an eruption of a dead volcano
Eighty two marked another era
Guns grimly flowered furtively
And died before full blossom
Leaving carcasses fit for hounds
To adorn the blood red earth.

In eighty eight they queued
In the hope of a new epoch
But a season of luck denied
Marched majestically in
Trampling all hope underfoot.
Despair drenched desperate souls.




2.
Night almost led to day
As a new wave wrought 92’
But when all sweat dried
Many cowards were fried
It was like everything lay ahead
And yet, even that, was dead.

The night was all darkness
Its stars were all vandalized
The moon was a shy mistress
Whose manners had been stripped
The sun scorched the long days
And earth became a parched heart

Darkness furiously blossomed
Becoming one mighty flower
Its scent scared some into cowardice
Making them join the enemy
But for some, they were happy
Seeing stars when it got darker

Saba saba marked another dawn
For a smile would replace a frown
Kamukunjis sprouted spiritedly.
As the flame flourished nationally
Incinerating all the oppressors ideology
Nyayo House opened doors for lunatics

3.
Then came the year of reckoning
And the wretched of the earth,
The people for too long oppressed,
They all were ecstatic for the new era.
But before bright smiles transcended
Their broad faces, they were wailing.

The bright illusion faded before them.
All along as they walked to the mirage
They hoped to trap it with their souls
But as higher to the sun they went
Dreams of ‘morrow froze in the cold.
It was a paradox, an irony yet untold.

When Wanjiku in 2007 decided
She was certain the code was cracked
But before ballot licked black box
All the hubristic hunters were protesting.
Blood burrowed earth forming seas
And Kenya drowned in its wickedness.
Kĩ rĩ Nyaga

Wanjiku moves to the unknown
Ever praying history repeats not
She seeks a third and final liberation
And seems not to mind all the heat
That can culminate into a revolution.
Many rivers of protest still flow…