Elders
Guardians of the sagacious gates
Here, they bring me
Before your council
My cardinal crime
Is abusing time--
Yes!
Atukot angikasukou
Our gray haired fathers;
My people,
Torment and torture me
They call me names
Names that deafen the gods of thunder
And blind my dawn
Names that send skies crying
My major mistake
Is abusing time --
Yes!
Many a suitors
I have turned down
Them who've sailed afar
To fetch the knowledge of books
And corrupt their looks
Come back
Singing at my father's door
To my soiled ears;
'...It is romantic to kiss
When the snow falls... '
How?
How would I:
Akiru
Lover of the gray bull
Named after my people's one wish;
Rain!
Know of falling snow
If the only flowing waters I've ever seen
Are bitter tears
From hungry children
Crying after feeding on their feces?
Young men
Flock our home
With forked tongues
Men whose brains bulge
Bubbling with biblical tales
From yonder lands
Strange stories:
'...From dust
God created Adam and from his ribs
Eve...'
But when I ask them
Of Akuj
The giver of life
and
The father of fortunes
They turn away
As though I spat on their faces.
When I ask them
Of Ngikaram,
Our forefathers
Who fought for our land
Them we remember
With libations
Of milk, blood and honey
Poured to the soil
From which
'God' created a divine Adam
They coil
And disappear
Scared like dogs
Tails between hind limbs.
I--Akiru
I will wait
Wait for the rains
Wait for the return
Of the gray bull
Robbed from us
By culture rustlers.
Akuj,
The divine one
Help me wait.
Atukot angikasokou,
Chosen council
Let me wait.
Aminatoi,
Love
I will wait
Wait for you
My gray bull.
I will wait.
Oyoo Mboya is a poet from Eldoret. follow him on Facebook for more.
