Steve Otieno Poems

I'll call you moonlight,
and you'll wonder why
I have to make it weird,
...

some of my shortest words
will come in something resembling an ellipsis……
because of my inability to complete the picture
with a twenty-six count alphabet,
...

the strangest language
is that of lovers,
when they speak to one another
through shadows they've cast
...

you're waking up to a new day -
it is an endless ocean
spread before you,
...

find the one thing that boils the blood in you
and let it keep you warm in the coldness of nights,

should the passion be love,
...

I've seen your smile a number of times,
I have painted you,
etched you,
engraved you,
...

you have to learn
how to be keen,
when clouds congregate
and a fear of the storm sets in,
...

the trouble with being surrounded by beauty
whether of the animate or inanimate kind,
is in forgetting how ugly the world is
and can be,
...

if you ever cut yourself out of the frame,
you are responsible for how softly
or crudely
you lower yourself to the ground,
...

I found a way
for my fingers to navigate me through the blinds,
where the dawn's sunrise,
the dusk's sunset,
...