TAKE ME HOME

Take me home

Home where my heart beats for

Deep in the village of my youthful days

Take me home

Home where they speak my forefathers language not this foreign talk

Take me home

Where they still dance kilumi our traditional dance

Take me home

Where they still have fermented milk in the guards

Take me home where the calves jump in ecstasy at the sight of the African sunset

Take me home even for a day then return me here to play with this prison

Take me home

Home where I tasted the knife of circumcision and the elders then told me,”You are now a man.”

Take me home where I met Kasilili my childhood sweetheart

A beautiful girl  with beautiful African stature

A nice gap at the lower teeth and such a nice curve like kilungya the potter’s pot

Take me home

Where the weaver birds sing better than an artist known to mankind

Take me home where generosity is key and every visitor is welcomed

Take me home

To my beautiful African village of Wendano

The land of my ancestors

I am sick and tired of this world of techno newbies

Where respect is washed off

I am sick and tired of the noise of their cars and their milling factories

I am sick and tired of their meals that are always malady causing

I am sick and tired of their selfish antics and their social disorder

Son of my progeny

I love your progress

I have enjoyed good time with you and my in-law

But really

The city is not my place

Take me home

 

AFRICAN SUNSET

 

African sunset you that sets in the west
Once a nice whole day is about to waste
Illuminating your red rays in the river
Making it blurry red

African sunset
You that pump joy in calves
And make them jump endlessly
Spreading the red dust into the darkening sky

African sunset
You that put the spirit of play in children
And make them play with the polythene ball
Scoring between the two stones for a goalpost
Brings true joy
All in you watch

African sunset
Our high tower
That watches us all
Reminds me if am to forget my good morals
And get the modern light
Shine another artificial sunset in my life
Where our ways and norms are archaic
Where our practices are barbaric
Where our beautiful villages with nostalgic stories wear off
By techno cities with no once upon tale
But only say, “This a blueprint, of the previous regime ”
Remember even New York and Tokyo have telltale tales
Why then ours
That thrive on
This magnificent
African sunset

African sunset
Let no light supersede yours
Like chicks under your wings
Hold us to you forever
Lest our kids
Have no past to refer to
Even on you
Ooh
African sunset

©Erick Kitheka

I HATE GROWING UP

I have watched brother Max
Lose the taste of being a child
As quick as fire on wax
And begin talking the grown up way
Talks of Luther and Karl Marx
At the sound of this
I say out loud
I hate growing up

I have watched sister Sally
Play with me and look silly
But now
She lacks her little height
Her waist is all round
She is ever on make up
Her chest is swollen too
I gues she is sick
She no longer plays
She says,she’s grown up
At the sight of this
I say out loud
I hate growing up

I have touched items in brother Bens room
No longer is the touch of play items
No longer is the touch of forgotten plasticine
But,books,movies and gadgets
The touch is different

At the touch of this
I say out loud
I hate growing up
I want to be forever a child
To play by swing’s
To bounce in the castle
To hide and seek  my friends
To sing happy songs
To use toys
And play outdoor ball games
Football, volleyball,tennis and cricket
Until the sunsets
I want to live this life forever
That’s why
I hate growing up

HE WAS DADDY, HE TOO WAS HUMAN

I watched the little girl
Rush from the arms of her mother
To the rescue of her daddy
A man in blue
Who was to protect me and you
But the crowd
The protesters caught with him
Off his guard
Far from his colleagues
At the corner where he came closer
To pass his little school girl through the menace
But the crowd
The mob
Who were on peaceful demonstration’s
And it was peaceful indeed
As clearly illustrated by the
Teargas and shots in the air
The flying stone hurled at officer
All throughout
The peaceful demonstration
The officer too was of flesh
And a daddy to a girl
A girl that saw a citadel in him
And he undertook to rush her from this
But the crowd
The blows
The kicks
The stones
The clubs
All rained on him
In the watch of his helpless little fire
That cried for their mercy
To no vain
All blinded by their stereotype
Forgetting, though he was a police man
He was still human
And a daddy too
He fell to the mob
He died as the little girl called, “Daddy, daddy, daddy, get up ,let’s go to mumme…..daddy pleas…e”
She cried holding his head that lay on a pool of blood
Only because of his line of duty
Forgetting he was a daddy, he too was human
That night the news man reported
Two people were dead and one police man
Now I knew
There are people and the police
But still it hurt Mr
Though he was a police man
He was a HE WAS DADDY, HE TOO WAS HUMAN
I watched the little girl
Rush from the arms of her mother
To the rescue of her daddy
A man in blue
Who was to protect me and you
But the crowd
The protesters caught with him
Off his guard
Far from his colleagues
At the corner where he came closer
To pass his little school girl through the menace
But the crowd
The mob
Who were on peaceful demonstration’s
And it was peaceful indeed
As clearly illustrated by the
Teargas and shots in the air
The flying stone hurled at officer
All throughout
The peaceful demonstration
The officer too was of flesh
And a daddy to a girl
A girl that saw a citadel in him
And he undertook to rush her from this
But the crowd
The blows
The kicks
The stones
The clubs
All rained on him
In the watch of his helpless little fire
That cried for their mercy
To no vain
All blinded by their stereotype
Forgetting, though he was a police man
He was still human
And a daddy too
He fell to the mob
He died as the little girl called, “Daddy, daddy, daddy, get up ,let’s go to mumme…..daddy pleas…e”
She cried holding his head that lay on a pool of blood
Only because of his line of duty
Forgetting he was a daddy, he too was human
That night the news man reported
Two people were dead and one police man
Now I knew
There are people and the police
But still it hurt Mr
Though he was a police man
He was a daddy, and he too was human

MY HEART IS IN MASAKU

MY HEART IS IN MASAKU
My heart is Masaku
Under the Kenya skies
Where I met a beautiful lady
With dark and sparkling eyes
My heart is in Masaku
My heart beats for her
I will be with her
That day when I die
Her parents were rich and affluent
And I was one of their handyman
Who drove their tens of cars
On their tens of their garage
So I was just a poor peasants son
And we lived world’s apart
One in the estate and the other in a ghetto
So how I could I tell her I loved her
Or speak of the highs and lows of heart
The lady I loved I never told
The lady I loved almost knew me less
The lady I loved never knew
The lady I loved never loved me
But how I told it to the shafts and the bonnets of her father’s cars
Wish they could speak of my woes
Soon her adolescent was shed off
And in the progeny age she was
Her type she fell for
Heavens
I was just a poor mans boy
The lady I loved never notice me
The day she got married my heart broke into two
Poor me
And now I knew she will never miss me
Soon was a wedding
In White she looked beautiful
But not for me
Then her belly was big
Happily ever was her life now
Soon midwives would give her her own
But the gods had a bad conspiracy
In her progeny blood was lost
And she had to breath her last
My heart already broken into two broke even more
I hate teary moments
But I also cried
Now in my old age
My heart still in Masaku
It beats for the lady I met
Though our love never was
High above I know of my intents I will tell her
My heart is in Masaku
My heart beats for her
I will be with her
The day when I die

DAUGHTER OF KATHAMBI

Daughter of Kathambi
Wash your nzele
Fill it with porridge
To appease Mukulu and others in your lineage
Daughter of Kathambi
Get your ndii ready with mwithi
For you will pound millet
To cook porridge for the visitor
Daughter of Kathambi
Bath yourself clean in the Thwake river
And get ready to meet your husband
The son of Sing’a
Sing a song
Sing a song of praise
Sing my heart sing
For over the dust is my husband
Over that red dust raised by cattle
The long horned cattle
Indeed the spoil he has taken from raiding ukavi
Look at Wa Sing’a my choice for a husband
Indeed like Mutune your father
You are a great warrior
Thanks to Mulungu for guiding your arrows
Thanks to Ngai for blessing your quiver
Come dance with me
Son of our land
Son of Sing’a
Tell us a tale
Tell us of the land of quiver
How did your quiver conquer
The spear of ukavi
How did you survive in a strange land
Tell me this lover of heart
Husband betrothed to me in my childhood years
But first let me lead you home
And forget your predicaments
Welcome of home
The husband choice for me
The daughter of kathambi

Erick Kitheka©

PAPA DON’T GO

A tribute to my late father

Get up papa
Get out of that wooden box
Get up and look at me in the eyes
Then tell me this
Whose visitor,shall I be?
Who shall my tears rub off?
Who shall my days make brighter?
Who shall be my strong tower when am weak?
Who shall be with me when I need someone close?
Who shall teach me life and its essence?
Papa don’t go
Look at me wet in tears
Look at sister
All worn out of crying
Look at mama,she has fainted
Papa please
Get out of that wooden box
Get up
Don’t go papa
You cant leave me in the hands of these mourners
Theirs are empty promises
But when the sun goes down
They will all be gone
And I will remain to cry and drown in my tears
Don’t go papa
Please don’t go
Please son of my grandpa
Hear my cry
Please husband of my mother
Make my eyes dry
For the duty ahead is do hard to try
Try to be what you are
The strong tower
Death is so strong,if it brought down the Samson in you
Death is so lucky
For it was not physical challenge with you
Because that would be the end of death in the world
But let me just say we cant solve mysteries
Now you are here
As you are about to rest
Six feet ,under six feet far from we that love you
And it is this that hurts most
Papa see my hurt heart in pieces
And be considerate
Please,
Papa don’t go

Erick Kitheka©