I Saw A Queue Poem by DEDAN ONYANGO

I.

Do you know a queue?
Probably yes, probably no!
Let me ask again,
Ever seen a queue pal?
Probably no, probably yes!
Either way you may be right
Or wrong pal!
How amazing it is!
That today you have no clue
Or you might have a clue of what a queue is…

II.

I saw a queue
No I have been seeing queues.
Yes queues have been there since time,
No damn it! But today I say a queue
Made by man!
Ever seen a queue made by man?
Of course yes!
No! You are still right
Or wrong pal!

III.

Today I saw a queue pal
Long enough to remind me
That we are still in the dark ages
While some are now in the white ages
We are still dark while they white!

I saw a queue
Long enough to remind me
That we are still colonized
And that this queue
Is all that we have
Yet the haves and haves not
Don't share this queue pal.

IV.

Today I saw a queue pal
A queue of sun baked mothers
Carrying their malnourished babies
While some die on their mothers'chests
Sucking blood out of their mothers shriveled breasts
At last drops of hope!
The bony children stop crying,
Yet their mothers die trying
Trying to get them to the
Promise land
Or is it a cursed land!

V.

Today I saw a queue
Made by man
Man who was not man enough
To stop the butchering of his fellow men
Just because they are not of his tribe
His religion, his kinship
His race, his class
His…
A queue made by man
For man,
For men who
Are incapable
Men who for a long time have been exploited
Polluted and dumped like waste.

VI.

Today I saw a queue pal,
A queue long enough
Long enough to remind me of the history long gone
And the future so gone
And the present so long,
A queue of wananchi queuing for mafuta taa
At least to chase away the self imposed darkness,
Yet the bigwigs dine on their sweat
So sweet sound is their sleep.
Yet some sleep standing on the streets!

VII.

I saw a queue
Of sick men and women
All in one file
Waiting for the God sent to administer the normal dose
Painkillers
Even Pneumonia, Give them Paracetamol,
No!
Panadol will do!
No!
That could be malaria
Mara moja will do!
R.I.P, he died of hunger they will say!
On the planes they fly out
India, Europe, USA,
Sometimes South Africa,
Yet we have public Hospitals
Which are too public indeed!
I saw this queue pal
Have you?

VIII.


I saw a queue
Of passengers waiting for that public transporter,
To take them to their leafy suburbs
Or is it slam suburbs?
In the Mat, they sit sandwiched
One will be forced to sit on the air
On that imaginary seat,
Along the road is but full of potholes
He clings on the shoulders of the other passengers
Who will then wonder aloud what is wrong with this stranger!

IX.

Today I saw a queue
A queue this long
Of school going children being given relief food
What a relief!
Their plate gagged with Katumani maize
And Maharagwe ya Nyayo
That will keep them in class,
And a long time ago they use to sing that song
You know it pal
The Nyayo song
Now they eat it!

X.

I saw a queue
That brought back the painful memories
Of our forefathers
Who fought for independence
Only to make us dependent!
Our forefathers
Whose graves are nowhere to be seen
Yet we name streets after them, DEDAN KIMATHI,
Our forefathers who were assassinated
Now statues we have erected, TOM MBOYA,
Pal where is J.M KARIUKI' statue?

XI.

Today I saw queue
Of farmers who carry heavy sacks of coffee on their backs
And slowly they climb up the hill
Some so ill,
But the factory man
Will just give them peanuts for pay
That is more than enough for two days
He will say!

XII.

One more queue
Which we shall continue to see for a long time,
I saw a queue of men and women
With their Voting cards tightly held
With umbrellas tightly fixed over their heads
With children tightly tied on their backs
Going to vote!
Going to vote for change
Yet things afterwards remained the same!

Lately I have been seeing queues pal,
Queues as long as the Nile River
Queues as deep as Lake Turkana
Queues as long as humanity
YET this queue lacks humanity.

Pal, still you have never seen these queues?
Yes or No,
You may be right
Or wrong.
I see a queue
Do you?