Children Poem by Isaac Maliya

Cry for your receding past
Remember your rich bedrock
Retreat from the filthy
To be moulded better citizens.

Cry for the animal skins
The beauty of your society
That covered you with respect
To be relieved of the shame.

Tear your light clothes
To ashes they be burnt
For to vagararies of weather
Exposed are your bodies
Your lifespan truncated.

Cry for the “Nsatsi” oil
Beautifier of your skin and tattoos
Decant the western cosmetics
That erodes the beauty of the skin
Reducing the Creator know-how.
Cry out! Oh! Children of today!

Dedication: To the degenerating
society of today, whose
lifestyle do not conform
to those of a true African.

Saturday,10th February 1990.
Blantyre, Malawi.