Would You Mind?

Would you mind if we split up your salary
As I, a poet, wrote for you pieces you love?

Would you mind if I stayed in your house
Just drinking from the licit brew of my intoxication?

Would you mind, friend, if I woke you up at 2 a.m.
To tell you that Cummings spoke to me in a dream?

If I took you to the fields and asked you if the air
Is a little sulky and withdrawn, would you mind?

Would you mind, friend, if I read you my free verses
In a busy lane without a care, shouting like a man possessed?

If I kept silent, just listening to my loud thoughts
Or perhaps burst out laughing, would you mind?

If I whistled deep into the night, just to hear my voice
And with equal measure tapped my feet, would you mind?

If I invited you to see the cactus and thorns on a hot day
Without use of your jalopy, would you mind?

Would you mind friend, if I played Zilizopendwa* in your Sony
And hummed along with Daudi Kabaka's Pole Musa?

Would you mind, if in my eccentricity, I followed up a spider
Into your attic, because it is a subject of my poem?

Would you mind, friend, if I kept my poetry books in your cabinet
And flicked on channels for my favourite poets?

If I talked with your pet, laughing with him and teach him
A thing or two about survival, would you mind?

Friend, would you mind if I stopped a little while longer
To chat with a mad man, just to keep up with him?

Would you mind, friend, if I stared into the dying sun
While listening to Sundowner, feeding on its last glory?

Would you mind if we lived on your fat salary
While I keep to necessities, as long as I can breath?

Would you mind my lifestyle, my oddity, my queerness
Amidst your standard regulated life?

Would you accommodate me, friend
With all my imperfections and anomaly?

* Zilizopendwa-- Those old music common with the old folks
Daudi Kabaka-- An iconic musician of Kenya who passed away; Pole Musa is one of his songs


C) Lorot Salem 2011