Wednesday 26 January 2011

Ode to Nelson Mandela



African Son, Child of Earth
The Great One, The Horn of Peace
Embarrassed I am to pen a poem of your profile
I am a nonentity.

I have read your biography
I have read your speeches
I have watched mankind welcome you
Just to be close to who you really are.

But I have no inkling of being in jail
For people's liberation.

Now in sunset of your years
With power struggles
Famine
Poverty
Corruption
Our continent is still poisoned
Mzee Madiba, what apt lesson should we extract?

What lesson of selflessness
Told to the world at Robben Islands
Should we seek?

Mzee Mandela, African Son, Child of Earth
The Great One, The Horn of Peace
What tribute do we pay to our fallen gallant fighters
For self-determination?
What shall we say of Sharpeville and Sisulu?
Did our forefathers have to die in vain?
Where is Matunda ya Uhuru?

I have an idea, Mzee Madiba
Let every elder from every hamlet meet you
Let them pour libation and ward off evil
Let them unearth arrows and bayonets
Let them speak blessings.

Call this meeting soon, I beg of you
Let our sons and daughters who lead us converge
Let them tell the elders why they are poisoning our land
Let them tell us why they keep kola nuts to themselves
Let them tell us who bewitched them with failed leadership.

Call this meeting soon, I beg of you
The Great One, the Horn of Peace
Then call poets who can chew words
Let them sing for peace
Let them sing dirges of buried dreams
Let them chastise our sons and daughters who shame us
Let them craft rhyme and meter to laugh at us
Let them satirize our pretence and hypocrisy.

Call this meeting soon, I beg of you
The Great One, the Horn of Peace.

C) Lorot Salem 2011

Write Me a Letter




Write me a letter, Sweet One,
A letter whose first paragraph will cloud my eyes
A letter with Englishicated English
A letter with words like perambulate
A letter with a dedication of top ten songs
A letter perfumed and dusted with powder

Write me a letter, My Beloved,
In your slanting handwriting
A letter that I will read in class
And all my friends will turn green with envy
A letter that I will keep under the pillow
A letter which if your parents saw you will be excommunicated

Write me a letter, the Pupil of my Eye,
A letter that has never been written by any other lady
A letter that I will read in class, in the loo and deep into the night
A letter with the last paragraph that will defy comprehension
A letter that will make up for our long distance

Write me a letter, the Breath of my Voice,
A letter that will remind me of the sugarcane we chewed
A letter whose words will jump from paper to heart
A letter that will bewitch me
A letter that will be shy yet bold
A letter that will be uncensored yet suspense-filled
A letter of friendship yet intimate

Write me a letter, the Goddess of the Hills,
A letter that has never been written by a lady
A letter that will pulsate in my heart
A letter that can sing
A letter that will remind us of butterflies and bees.

C) Lorot Salem 2011

Monday 17 January 2011

Daughter of a Woman





My bull with crossed horns, Longolemwai,
Witness this, Witness this, Longolemwai
When we were trapped in the crossfires of the bullets
Trapped in panyirit thorns in no-man’s-land
Trapped in steep gulleys with no food to eat but among’oo and angalalio 
We did it the two of us, just the two of us
Witness this, Witness this, Longolemwai
The daughter of a woman has trapped my heart, Longolemwai
The daughter of a woman is making my heart go in circles
The daughter of a woman, my bull, is like sour milk
Served in dry season
The daughter of a woman is millet porridge with milk and pyöpay 
The daughter of a woman has the eyes of gazelles
The daughter of a woman goes to the river and oh, the way she moves her hips
The daughter of a woman makes my blood boil
I can jump and hit my head on heaven
I can jump and make a hole on earth with my feet
The daughter of a woman has trapped my heart, Longolemwai
Witness this, Witness this, Longolemwai
My bull with crossed horns, Longolemwai,
The daughter of a woman has trapped my heart, Longolemwai

C) Lorot Salem 2011

Saturday 15 January 2011

God’s Own Timing




Mortal Man,
Suffer, Mortal Man, Suffer
Find comfort in the solitude of your worries
Look back to the day gracefully
Never whine, never curse
Armour yourself with faith of a new day
Don’t worry of tweedle little things
Dream instead of all possibilities
Wrought by big vision and big faith

Mortal Man,
Forsaken you are not
Clay is made brick in furnace
Gold is not gold without heat
Darkest it is before dawn
I have seen men rise from grass to class
Why should you despair?

Mortal Man, stand firm
Your foothold be the Mountain Peaks
Your grasp be the Stars
Your hope be Transcendent
Your Faith be to Tororot.

C) Lorot Salem 2011

Plundered Dreams



This is no chitchat
Of bush romance.
This is no idle talk
Of women in well.
This is no gossip
Inside a barber shop.

Words that can make or break nations
These words are,
Emotions that can draw blood
From the skulls of killed soldiers
These emotions are,
Grief that can explode
Hearts of the oppressed
These grieves are.

This is no Bush-Romance-Chit-Chat
An Elegy it is of borrowed dreams
Coarse conscience
Mutilated mien
Choreographed calmness
Stale stance

This is not an idle talk
A commentary it is of broken pieces
riddled roses
Flaring flames
Sickening sirens

These words
Are the buried bodies of plundered dreams
Mocking their epitaphs.

C) Lorot Salem 2011


Of Legal Realm I Speak


Of Legal Realm I speak
Of Laws of Men and God
Of Crimes and Punishment
Of Jurisprudence and Maxims
Of Legal Realm I Speak.

I Speak in legal jargons
As if I am possessed by the Spirit of Lord Denning
I think in three dimensions
Talk like an orator before hang
Spilling law most hidden

Of Legal Realm I speak
Of Laws of Men and God.

C) Lorot Salem 2011

Monday 10 January 2011

The Law Is An Ass




So you heard the acclaim, friend
Of the double attributes of the self-same ass

Inside the Halls of Justice
Robed judges and murderers wield war
Coded in tacit technicalities
Worded in discreet Latin and English
The ass carries the baggage of man:
crimes, punishment,
remedy, redress
It pulls cart of victim’s plea

But when the ass rebels it kicks
It is no respecter of persons
Paupers and kings
Lawyers and citizens
All drawn within
The radius of the incensed ass
So you are right, friend,
That the law is an ass
But if I may hazard
Why is your breath foul and incestuous mouthing ass
Intoned with twice as much a derogation as of an expletive?
C) Lorot Salem 2011

The Street Lawyer



I fancy myself a lawyer in the streets
Hereinafter referred to as Street Lawyer
Dressed not in crisp dark suits but ordinary street wear
Carrying not wheeled suitcases but newspapers and legal journals
Seated not in posh law firms but Aga Khan Walk and Job Corner
I am a Street Lawyer.

You will not find me in Conference Halls
Or Seminars
Chatting about Thomas Hobbes
I am a Street Lawyer.
You will find me in Studios
Canvassing on Hague and Rome Statute
Giving a legal angle to every current news on Telly

People think I am a mad man
Walking with torn pieces of Law Reports
People mistake me for a lunatic
Reciting maxims and Latin and sections
That makes me no less
A  Street Lawyer.

I am the law in motion
Not static in phlegmatic law handlers
I make law rotate and spin around mouths of men
People love me because I am their bridge, their Moses
I read sections of the constitution
And explain them as if it is a Class- Two- Baa- Baa- Black- Sheep- Rhyme
But I am friend to Tear Gas Canisters
For I also speak the Human Rights Language fluently
Thrice I have been poisoned, twice shot, dozen-times jailed
On trumped-up charges
For I am a Street Lawyer.

I speak straight and narrow
Even against the highest in the echelons of power
If I see travesty of justice, I cry murder
If I see sloth of the Legislature, I harangue
If I see the police killing aimlessly, I climb Street Lamps in protest
If I see Press gagged, I walk with them with mouth sealed
If I see my country steeped in impunity, I go on hunger strike
For I am a Street Lawyer
I speak the language of the common man.

C) Lorot Salem 2011

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