The Portrait Poem by DEDAN ONYANGO

A portrait of an impoverished people,
Emaciated children's mouths flocked with flies
By the stench of hunger attracted
Flies that edifice another layer of lips
Atop the thirst cracked ones.
Stomachs that have not been
Home to food for days on end,
Hopelessness a feature obvious,
On these innocent beings faces.

SAIDIA MASIKINI, they plead,
As we callously strut past
Their lifelessly stretched hands,
Eyes trained cautiously where we are going,
The portrait of a forgotten people,
Left for dead in dried lands,
Where rain has a permanent boycott
Not even a drop would kiss the land.
Painted pictures of a baby,
Suckling the breast of her dead mother,
The smell of death piecing the nose.

A portrait of an impoverished
People, scavenging for left over
Meals heaped upon filthy bins,
Brawling over it akin to lions ripping
Apart the only gazelle in the feral
Aware that, they know not where
From the next meal cometh, and
The dusk dreaded, for nights are
But spent out in the cold on
Pavements, the only known home.

This masterpiece conceived by
The elite of the people, coined to
Details impeccable is nothing
Worthy of global exhibition, yet
In the museums of our minds,
They linger, with the brush of
Impunity more paint is smeared,
For upon this milieu, stands the risk
Of our insecurity,
Theft occasioned by hunger,
Violence fuelled by anger
And a society on the brink of collapse,
With gratitude to our corrupt leaders,
Behold a portrait of looming catastrophe!