tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27894280754398268472024-02-02T16:39:59.601-08:00echoes of the hillsWe are at this moment, fellow pilgrim, treading on the boulders of this hill
upon weathered rocks and rotting roots to smell a whiff of nature’s scent
or to spot footprints on molten lava.Salem Lorothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02786501839467653361noreply@blogger.comBlogger471125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2789428075439826847.post-77333446917245268202017-09-06T06:53:00.002-07:002017-09-06T06:53:11.935-07:00Teacher Might Have Been Wrong<b>Teacher once said that our minds are great things.</b><br />
<b>They hold so much information, he said.</b><br />
<b>And I believed him.</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>But I have been in this great city for sometime</b><br />
<b>And I fear that Teacher might have been wrong.</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>A thief stole a lot of money</b><br />
<b>Meant to care for autistic children</b><br />
<b>We saw him foaming at the mouth</b><br />
<b>His eyes wore the guilt of his egregiousness</b><br />
<b>People forgot about the money</b><br />
<b>And now he leads them.</b><br />
<br />
<b>Our minds just occupy fleeting thoughts.</b><br />
<b>I remember how we were enraged</b><br />
<b>When somebody whipped out a gun</b><br />
<b>And shot a bystander who was eating potato</b><br />
<b>crips next to his six-year-old.</b><br />
<b>We shouted and tweeted about it</b><br />
<b>But while he slipped back to freedom</b><br />
<b>We couldn't remember the name of that bystander,</b><br />
<b>Or where the six-year-old is now.</b><br />
<br />
<b>Of course, remembering things makes people sick.</b><br />
<b>Like when a child was electrocuted in a shack</b><br />
<b>Because of live illegal electric wires connecting to the slum.</b><br />
<b>Like when beggar's bowls have been kicked in the streets</b><br />
<b>By harried city dwellers caught in the demon of commercialized existence.</b><br />
<b>Like that hawker whose head was crushed with an askari's rungu.</b><br />
<br />
<b>The mind is good with algebra and calculus</b><br />
<b>and Montesquieu and Shakespeare</b><br />
<b>But when caught up in the heady waters</b><br />
<b>of life, the mind soon realizes that the only algebra</b><br />
<b>that matters is one that is more immediate</b><br />
<b>like hunger pangs</b><br />
<b>or the Landlord with mean-looking Estate Agents.</b><br />
<br />
<b>I have seen people in this city</b><br />
<b>talk to themselves, holding imaginary conversations</b><br />
<b>with their minds, unable to adjust to reality.</b><br />
<br />
<b>So no one writes books anymore</b><br />
<b>Because there is nothing to memorialize</b><br />
<b>And that the void now needs to be vaporized</b><br />
<b>NOW.</b><br />
<br />
<b>The people in this city</b><br />
<b>live for now- their chicken cooked in five minutes flat</b><br />
<b>& words of love whispered now and forgotten</b><br />
<b>& sins forgiven and forgotten and committed and forgotten</b><br />
<b>& museums demolished to build shopping malls</b><br />
<b>& fast news, breaking news and gossips and tabloids</b><br />
<b>& faster technology and dying friendships</b><br />
<br />
<b>The man with the flute</b><br />
<b>used to sing at Nairobi Archives</b><br />
<b>many years ago</b><br />
<b>when people could hear the hum of their thoughts</b><br />
<b>He used to say,</b><br />
<b>You will miss me, you will miss my flute,</b><br />
<b>because this music I am playing</b><br />
<b>for free has been my breathe</b><br />
<b>Every time you hear it, it retraces your mind to</b><br />
<b>this place, the place where we all originated from. </b><br />
<br />
<b>C) Salem Lorot/ echoesofthehills 2017</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b><br /></b>
<b><br /></b>
<b>for <a href="http://poetryblogroll.blogspot.co.ke/2017/09/poets-united-midweek-motif-memories.html">Poets United Midweek Motif ~ Memories </a></b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b><br /></b>
<b><br /></b>
<b><br /></b>
<br />
<b> </b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b><br /></b>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Salem Lorothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02786501839467653361noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2789428075439826847.post-31366202956939754382017-08-16T08:57:00.002-07:002017-08-16T11:22:21.352-07:00can you read the face of a river?<div class="MsoNormal">
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<b>my grandmother once told me that a river is just like us. but it is more, she said. <br /><br /> she would take me to the river and ask me, “is she happy, grandson?” <br /><br /> and as a child i would tell her, “how can I tell?” <br /><br /> she would tell me that if she were happy, <br /><br /> would she frolic about, throwing up her arms <br /><br /> and uproot trees at her banks, just as an excited teenager would? <br /><br /> <br />or would she just lie as a love-smitten girl would <br /> </b><br />
<b>on her bed and just smile? </b><br />
<b> </b> <b></b><br />
<b><br />(now, I got confused) </b><br />
<b> </b> <b></b><br />
<b><br /></b> <b>would the quiet waters be the face of seething anger— the type of anger that ripples on the </b><br />
<br />
<b>surface and boils inside the treacherous waters known to drown full-sized men? </b> <b><br /><br /><br />i have seen cheerful, boisterous waters swallow a man and I thought, “here you go, capricious </b><br />
<br />
<b>waters, you don’t kill people in your excitement!” </b><br />
<b><br /></b> <b>and in some afternoons, the same waters, then in seething, raging anger but just flowing </b><br />
<br />
<b>gracefully </b><b>have hugged the feet of men who crossed to their safety. </b> <b></b><br />
<b><br /></b> <b><br />Chinjakuku— he was our village tailor. he got drunk one day. </b><b>river suam was in a cheerful, </b><br />
<br />
<b>boisterous mood. so it was throwing up twigs </b><b>and knocking off stones. she was in her element. </b><br />
<br />
<b>Chinjakuku—alcohol stirring revolt </b><b>in his head—was also in a cheerful, boisterous mood. he </b><br />
<br />
<b>stepped into the waters </b><b>and his flailing arms soon lost their strengths as he was suffocated by </b><br />
<br />
<b>the embrace of </b><b>the waters. </b> <b></b><br />
<b><br />it was like when you throw up a child up and clutch it and throw it higher and higher and it </b><br />
<br />
<b>slips through your hand. love is like that. </b> <b>and when we searched for Chinjakuku, river suam </b><br />
<br />
<b>just tucked him under her bosom. for one day. </b><br />
<br />
<br />
<b>then next morning, he was floating and the waters were just aloof, innocent even, as if nothing </b><br />
<br />
<b>had happened. </b><br />
<b><br /></b> <b>the same waters that have quenched the thirsts of travelers with parched throats. </b><br />
<b><br /></b> <b>the same waters that have hugged the feet of travellers who have crossed it to safety. <br /><br /> </b><br />
<b>no, grandmother. </b> <b></b><br />
<b><br />are these waters happy or sad or excited or hospitable? </b><br />
<b><br /> i can’t tell. <br /><br /> i am still on the river’s journey to read her face just like a palmist reads our future. <br /><br /> <br /> <br /><br />c) Salem Lorot/ echoesofthehills 2017</b><br />
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for <span style="color: black;"><a href="http://poetryblogroll.blogspot.co.ke/2017/08/poets-united-midweek-motif-flood.html">Poets United Midweek Motif ~ Flood </a></span></div>
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Salem Lorothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02786501839467653361noreply@blogger.com31tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2789428075439826847.post-1051412742646627732017-08-02T10:53:00.000-07:002017-08-02T10:59:24.216-07:00habidaher body was flown into the country.<br />
we saw it on TV. her mother lunged into the coffin, tore her dress,<br />
slapped her chest and her grief gave way. she collapsed on the glass<br />
from where her daughter's face watched the world. her father stared on in stoic pain.<br />
wails and moans suffocated the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport air.<br />
<br />
we saw the news months earlier. it was a video clip. three men<br />
stood around her, one kicked her in her teeth, the other held her arms,<br />
the last was pounding her. i watched that clip and cried. i saw the firm grip of violence.<br />
<br />
we got furious. Habida's mother appeared on TV, with tasbihi in her hand,<br />
her voice was hoarse with mourning. her stomach was a valley of the depression she was in.<br />
"death, please come take me. Habida, what have they done to you?"<br />
<br />
we read the news. Habida was hidden in a dungeon.<br />
from that pit that the darkness of humanity embraced her,<br />
she was raped. for eleven years. day and night.<br />
every year, they would harvest children from her womb.<br />
eleven births. eleven robberies. eleven children she never saw.<br />
she would push and cry and deliver children her hands never held.<br />
as her babies would be carried away, she would hear their tiny cries<br />
fade away. they say Habida died eleven times. and finally the twelfth time.<br />
<br />
i saw Habida's photo when she was alive and healthy and free.<br />
she had covered her head in a<i> hijab</i> and her pretty eyes watched.<br />
i saw innocence. she was like my sister looking over me.<br />
you would see her picture and say, "<i>Mashallah!</i>"<br />
to imagine that Habida would be desecrated kills me.<br />
<br />
i was in deep grief that day Habida's body was flown.<br />
her mother's cry haunts me. her father's pained expression wearies my soul.<br />
i walk around aimlessly and every lady in a <i>hijab</i> reminds me of Habida.<br />
<br />
"Allah will avenge for you, mama Habida."<br />
<br />
but to avenge is what courses in my heart. to descend into that dungeon<br />
and knock walls and chop and demand to see the hands that stole Habida's eleven children.<br />
i want to grab those three men who humiliated Habida and knock their heads against themselves<br />
so hard they would be dizzy and bleed. but that is not the tao. and Habida's eyes wouldn't approve of it.<br />
<br />
see Habida's grave. a mound of human greed and heartlessness.<br />
see her decomposed body in eternal repose. at peace. finally. ironically.<br />
see the flowers growing on her grave. see the roots of trees searching for her children.<br />
see her bones: white with beauty, though broken by those three men.<br />
see Habida. isn't she beautiful?<br />
<br />
-<br />
<br />
echoesofthehills/ Salem Lorot 2017<br />
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for <a href="http://poetryblogroll.blogspot.co.ke/2017/08/poets-united-midweek-motif-human.html">Poets United Midweek Motif ~ Human Trafficking </a><br />
<br />
#HumanTrafficking #EndHumanTrafficking<br />
<br />
The prompt from Poets United invited us to write a poem on human trafficking.<br />
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<br />Salem Lorothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02786501839467653361noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2789428075439826847.post-50552392718146655772017-02-03T10:00:00.002-08:002017-02-03T10:13:13.277-08:00my faith is not dead<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">dear Lokwanale,</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">my faith is not dead.</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">the blood shed on the ndazabazadde,</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">the torture tree at Namugongo,</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">the leaping flames from</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">burning reed that </span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">rose </span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">from human feet to head</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">as Mukaajaanga’s men speared and axed</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">and executed</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">all for defying the King</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">and believing in God.</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">dear Lokwanale.</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">welcomed their sore bodies</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">soon the cackling sounds of burnt flesh reeked</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">not curses did Mukaajaanga’s men hear</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">but the silent rising crescendo of hymns.</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">yes, my faith is not dead.</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">for where they died in 1886</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">is this poem now sprout.</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">at Busaale, where Ssenkoole burnt Lwanga</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">under Ggirikiti tree</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">at the very spot where the pyre lay</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">and a few metres where their ashes are kept</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">was this poem written in my heart.</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><b>C) Salem Lorot/echoesofthehills 2017</b></span> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">~</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> <b>for</b> </span><a href="http://poetryblogroll.blogspot.ug/2017/02/poets-united-midweek-motif-faith.html">Poets United Midweek Motif ~ Faith </a></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Notes:</span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">On Wednesday, 1<sup>st</sup> February 2016, I
visited both the Catholic Basilica at Busaale, Namugongo and the Anglican site
where the Uganda martyrs were executed up to 3<sup>rd</sup> June 1886. A total
of 25 martyrs were burnt en masse. </span></span></div>
Salem Lorothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02786501839467653361noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2789428075439826847.post-74695997986124806352017-01-20T01:59:00.002-08:002017-01-20T02:09:56.876-08:00We Buried That Foolish Youth Yesterday<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">That foolish youth was buried yesterday-</span></b></div>
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">
</span></b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">At night. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In
darkness. Without tears.</span></b></div>
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">
</span></b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">
</span></b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">He wore a permanent scowl</span></b></div>
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">
</span></b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">On his face that bore scars of knives;</span></b></div>
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">
</span></b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The top two buttons of his shirt were unbuttoned</span></b></div>
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">
</span></b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">To reveal a chest the size of two concrete slabs sitting on each other. </span></b></div>
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">
</span></b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">
</span></b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">His gait was of a prowling violence</span></b></div>
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">
</span></b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">In human flesh;</span></b></div>
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">
</span></b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Where he stepped, clods of soil whimpered</span></b></div>
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">
</span></b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">In mortal fear.</span></b></div>
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">
</span></b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">
</span></b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Old men in my village asked him, ‘Son,</span></b></div>
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">
</span></b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Why can’t you make peace with people?</span></b></div>
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">
</span></b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Show us your <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">tasus</i>-riddled,
pus-infested buttocks</span></b></div>
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">
</span></b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">So that we may prick it with thorns and make you whole
again.’</span></b></div>
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">
</span></b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">
</span></b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">He would brandish his fingers at the old men</span></b></div>
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">
</span></b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">And throw words carelessly the way a drunkard would do</span></b></div>
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">
</span></b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">When hopelessly drunk in high-noon.</span></b></div>
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">
</span></b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">
</span></b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">He had dropped out of school and would speak</span></b></div>
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">
</span></b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">A smattering of English:</span></b></div>
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">
</span></b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">“<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Me, we are the ones
they call bad, friend; wrong number!</i>”</span></b></div>
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">
</span></b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“ What is this
staphylococcus telling me? Do you even know what staphylococcus means?”</i></span></b></div>
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">
</span></b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">
</span></b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">We buried him, that foolish youth.</span></b></div>
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">
</span></b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">A decomposing flesh, so vulnerable, it was a pity.</span></b></div>
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">
</span></b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">No one cried: the dark figures that hurriedly buried him</span></b></div>
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">
</span></b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Just shook their heads</span></b></div>
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">
</span></b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Those fingers he brandished in anger</span></b></div>
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">
</span></b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Were frail, hopeless, decomposing flesh.</span></b></div>
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">
</span></b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">
</span></b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">When the mound had formed on this unmarked grave,</span></b></div>
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">
</span></b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The village sighed.</span></b></div>
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">
</span></b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">staphylococcuses</i>
had the last laugh. </span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">C) Salem Lorot/ echoesofthehills 2017</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">~</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">For <a href="http://poetryblogroll.blogspot.co.ke/2017/01/poets-united-midweek-motif-unity_18.html">Poets United Midweek Motif-Unity</a></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The prompt given by Susan this week was on unity. This was my attempt on this subject. </span></b></div>
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">
</span></b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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Salem Lorothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02786501839467653361noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2789428075439826847.post-2588935945277546672017-01-14T20:25:00.000-08:002017-01-14T20:25:46.322-08:00The Boy Who Carried the Family Door<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"></span></b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I read in a book that when Chernobyl happened,</span>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">To grab the door- knob that my great grandfather’s
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">-</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">C) Salem Lorot/ echoesofthehills 2017 </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">For <a href="http://poetryblogroll.blogspot.co.ke/2017/01/poets-united-midweek-motif-door.html">Poets United’s Midweek Motif- Door</a></span></div>
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Salem Lorothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02786501839467653361noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2789428075439826847.post-72177110904106001902016-10-10T07:23:00.002-07:002016-10-10T07:29:26.117-07:00dear ones (poem)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />Salem Lorothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02786501839467653361noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2789428075439826847.post-78750521682523905992016-07-25T16:39:00.004-07:002016-07-25T17:05:56.163-07:00#JusticeForWillie (Poems)On 23rd June 2016, Willie Kimani (advocate), Josephat Mwenda (a boda boda rider) and Joseph Muiruri ( a taxi cab driver) disappeared and a week later, on 1st July 2016, their bodies were found at Odonyo Sabuk River.<br />
<br />
The members of the legal profession in Kenya condemned the killings and staged a one week protest.<br />
<br />
These poems were written during that week from July 2nd to 8th July. On 9th July, advocate Willie Kimani was laid to rest.<br />
<br />
I wrote the following on 1st July 2016 upon learning of the cruel death of my colleague in the profession, his client and a taxi driver:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Ninalaani mauaji ya wakili Willie Kimani, dereva wa teksi Joseph
Muiruri na Josphat Mwenda. Ni sikitiko kubwa kupata taarifa kuwa miili
yao imepatikana katika mto wa Oldonyo-Sabuk. Kifo chake wakili Willie
Kimani na wenzake kinatuhumiwa kuhusiana na kesi aliyokuwa akiendesha
kortini. Tukio hili linazua maswali mengi kuhusiana na huduma za
mawakili kortini haswa maisha yao yakiwa hatarini na maadui wa haki.
Taifa ambalo linaongozwa na mtutu wa bunduki, vitisho na majangili ni <span class="text_exposed_show">taifa litakalosalia nyuma. Alimradi taifa lenyewe lisipowapa raia wake usalama, ibara za katiba ni kelele mnadani. </span><br />
<br />
<div class="text_exposed_show">
Wakili Kimani hayupo tena.<br />
<br />
Ndugu Joseph Muiruri hayupo tena.<br />
<br />
Ndugu Josphat Mwenda hayupo tena.<br />
<br />
Inaniuma, tena sana.<br />
<br />
Makiwa familia, marafiki na mawakili wenzangu.</div>
</blockquote>
<br />
On 6th July, I participated in my professional body's LSK Protest March to dramatise the shame and
righteous indignation of the heinous and callous torture, strangulation
and dumping and/or drowning in a river of my fallen colleague Willie Kimani, his client Mwenda and taxi driver Muiruri. The photo below captures the sombre mood.<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6dSIsE3_ZEfF-hRvE6U0ZTRxvrULoMSCUyk4CaTJCCChaGOPv2rLxtnMUfl3RKQNwzj_yrDshM0rDcnj2rKglSsvTsUDDaUy7U8wLgl3vEVy9vbq2YnFCQfh5Pt5GFpM2YEV0beUZ_Pk/s1600/LSK+Protest.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6dSIsE3_ZEfF-hRvE6U0ZTRxvrULoMSCUyk4CaTJCCChaGOPv2rLxtnMUfl3RKQNwzj_yrDshM0rDcnj2rKglSsvTsUDDaUy7U8wLgl3vEVy9vbq2YnFCQfh5Pt5GFpM2YEV0beUZ_Pk/s640/LSK+Protest.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
On that day, I wrote the following:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
A day like today, in 1944, Georges Mandel, French patriot, was
executed. And a day like this in 1935, Dalai Lama was born. On this day
in 1775, the U.S Congress issues a “Declaration on the Causes and
Necessity of Taking Up Arms”.<br />
<br />
And today more than 10,000
advocates of the High Court of Kenya will hold a protest march to
dramatise the shame and righteous indignation of the heinous and callous
torture, strangulation and dumping and/or drowning in a river of
Advocate Willie K<span class="text_exposed_show">imani, a client Mwenda and taxi driver Muiruri.</span><br />
<br />
<div class="text_exposed_show">
Today, we demonstrate that what we have are “nice sharp quillets of
law” à la Warwick to Lords in Shakespeare’s Play Henry VI. We will march
to the temple of justice and solemnly ask the State why Willie's body
is lying lifeless in eternal repose in the morgue when he should be
donned in a wig and a bib and seeking justice for the others. At the
temple of justice, we will ask, what imagery and metaphor should be
construed for the blood strewn on the wall at the very temple of
justice. <br />
Iustitia!<br />
<br />
<a class="_58cn" data-ft="{"tn":"*N","type":104}" href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/justiceforwillie?source=feed_text&story_id=1709422469309796"><span class="_58cl">#</span><span class="_58cm">JusticeForWillie</span></a> <br />
<a class="_58cn" data-ft="{"tn":"*N","type":104}" href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/justiceformwendwa?source=feed_text&story_id=1709422469309796"><span class="_58cl">#</span><span class="_58cm">JusticeForMwendwa</span></a> <br />
<a class="_58cn" data-ft="{"tn":"*N","type":104}" href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/justiceformuiruri?source=feed_text&story_id=1709422469309796"><span class="_58cl">#</span><span class="_58cm">JusticeForMuiruri</span></a></div>
</blockquote>
<br />
<b>#Poem 1- A blotch on our statute book</b><br />
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<br />
<b>#Poem 2- here is an empty gown and band</b><br />
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<b> #Poem 3- I sit here wondering </b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4rlZUXp3jTkRfm0fYQqYRX0mi80EnohcCtvq3eXuzApdZ4aAYeCFAw51m2wc2M71sii__0Bj_TVEDXMFWdYfalKNvySZsCfzO3oPxB9MkWNyTuZKny200s7c3km_jD6wsg3Up3eI_OcU/s1600/Poem+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="536" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4rlZUXp3jTkRfm0fYQqYRX0mi80EnohcCtvq3eXuzApdZ4aAYeCFAw51m2wc2M71sii__0Bj_TVEDXMFWdYfalKNvySZsCfzO3oPxB9MkWNyTuZKny200s7c3km_jD6wsg3Up3eI_OcU/s640/Poem+1.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<b>#Poem 4- The phoenix song</b><br />
<br />
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<br />
<b>#Poem 5- Thoughts expressed in Kiswahili</b><br />
<br />
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Salem Lorothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02786501839467653361noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2789428075439826847.post-8181961620696418902016-07-25T16:17:00.002-07:002016-07-25T16:17:18.860-07:00the beauty of dancing flames<br />
when leaps of flames lick a school<br /> the cackling sounds of fervour<br />
<br />
raising arms in rebellion. when billows of<br /> smoke trumpet fragrance <br />
<br />
of education gone awry. isn't it a beautiful<br /> sight to see the ashes of the pretentious edifice<br />
<br />
blown by the mocking wind? isn't there magic,<br /> something of hallowed curiosity<br />
<br />
in the soot, the ashes of burnt books,<br /> the half-burnt book-shelves<br />
<br />
testily saying, 'here, grab this wood'.<br /> that is what happens when education<br />
<br />
loses meaning. i used to think incendiary thoughts,<br /> the sparkling flames<br />
<br />
of revolutionary ideas or just the pursuit of<br /> knowledge, telling the professor<br />
<br />
"i need not useless qualifications but a mind<br /> that can pursue a thought<br />
<br />
as a hunter would a deer." but I was wrong.<br /> for when I see these flames<br />
<br />
i smile wryly at the astonished look around<br /> and a nation dousing the flames<br />
<br />
of a burning academic pretence. but unwittingly<br /> fanning the flames<br />
<br />
of testosterone-filled, rogue, 'utado'<br /> generation of students, the mirror images<br />
<br />
of a nation that once burnt itself but<br /> whose God's grace doused the flames<br />
<br />
at exactly 3 a.m, the Godly hour<br /> when the Divine Will triumphed over<br />
<br />
a state that was to-be-no-more. when a coward<br /> runs to you, saying, "look, I will burn<br />
<br />
myself!" do you quizzically look at her and say,<br /> " please do it during the day, so that we see<br />
<br />
the magic of a walking inferno" or do you<br /> tearfully hug her and say,<br />
<br />
"here is a piece of me, if you want to burn yourself<br /> get the petrol and let us both burn<br />
<br />
in a pyre." but when twenty cowards<br /> congregate at your doorstep<br />
<br />
saying, " we assemble here to burn ourselves<br /> as a protest to the<br />
<br />
uselessness of this life." do you get <i>a bakora</i><br /> and chase them down through the<br />
<br />
village square, past the butcher, past<br /> the bookshop, past<br />
<br />
the crematorium, where incidentally<br /> they should torch themselves<br />
<br />
to let the wind of death blow<br /> their ashes, perhaps in solidarity<br />
<br />
to their earthly protest? but what happens<br /> when curious minds, once a tabernacle<br />
<br />
of ideas, walk around dazed, seeing beauty<br /> in book-ashes, book-shelf-ashes, <br />
<br />
lecture-hall-ashes. anyway, burnt schools<br /> never scare me. What scares me<br />
<br />
is that for a long time, our education<br /> has burnt our child-like curiosity<br />
<br />
and what we carry in our heads<br /> are ashes: cindered dreams, powdered<br />
<br />
cogitations, embers of passivity, charcoals<br /> of dulled yes-yes, relics of shame<br />
<br />
that accept untruths, bigotry. isn't it<br /> curious that <br />
<br />
the thoughts of flames and ashes<br /> evoke within us<br />
<br />
passionate intensity<br /> like a town crier's announcement<br />
<br />
in the noon-day of our heightened ignorance.<br /> See those flames? they are <br />
<br />
a harbinger of hope. see those ashes? they are<br /> the urn's contents, a reminder of the<br />
hollowness of our education.Salem Lorothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02786501839467653361noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2789428075439826847.post-51751812934814365472016-06-24T14:26:00.002-07:002016-06-24T14:26:26.465-07:00for Keneuoe Moshoeshoeto the lady that loves <i>lesheleshele</i><br />
and <i>bohobe ba metsi,</i><br />
the bread that home-grown hands bake<br />
<br />
to the <i>mosali a motle</i>,<br />
the beautiful lady<br />
<i>motho a ratang naha e hlaha,</i><br />
the one who loves nature<br />
<br />
to Moshoeshoe,<br />
<i>mosali a mosehla</i>,<br />
the light-skinned one<br />
with <i>likoti marameng</i>,<br />
the dimples that lie at the cusp of time and beauty<br />
<br />
the one with <i>lintshi</i>,<br />
the eyelashes that stand outstretched<br />
in poised duty to majesty<br />
<br />
this is your <i>mmino</i>,<br />
the music that you listen to;<br />
your ears dancing to words<br />
tapping on African drum<br />
<br />
<i>thothokiso ena ke ngolla</i><br />
<i>ngoana naha ya lesotho</i>,<br />
I write this to the daughter of the land of the Sotho<br />
<br />
this poem,<br />
this <i>mmino</i>,<br />
is like a traditional <i>muratina</i> that you sip<br />
at the foot of the hill<br />
<br />
this song is the moving fingers of a flutist,<br />
the rush of melody spreading arms of<br />
freedom on the spaces of memory. Salem Lorothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02786501839467653361noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2789428075439826847.post-37295893506439456672016-05-30T08:23:00.003-07:002016-05-30T08:23:48.689-07:00a strange thing happened to me today<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">c) Lorot Salem/ echoes of the hills 2016</span></div>
Salem Lorothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02786501839467653361noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2789428075439826847.post-55561353433816068922016-02-29T08:22:00.001-08:002016-02-29T08:22:56.180-08:00for little Cheptoo<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
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<b>it is a frightening world, dear young sister,
</b><div class="MsoNormal">
<b>& you might not have realized it yet</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>& it scares me </b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
the dreams you have today</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
soaring up, unlimited like imagination,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
the shining light in your eyes</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
the curious questions you ask today</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
there will be a time they may be dimmed</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
by the strictures of the society</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
telling you, “You are a woman!”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
as if the dreams in your heart</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
were marked with the ink named woman</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
you see, Sister, there was once a time</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
when baby Lizzy <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and
her twin brother, Billy,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
were with me </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
& i was bathing them</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
& she asked me why Billy had <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">dudu</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
while she had not</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
& that was the briefest question that I had no answer
for</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
i remember also a question that little Billy once asked</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
a friend differently-abled in crutches visited me</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
& Bill asked what happened to his legs and why he wasn’t
walking properly</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
& again, I had no answer but I mumbled something</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
the world you are living in, Sister,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
will not be fair to you and if you will not be careful</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
it might pull you down, suck life out of you & drag you
on dirt</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
for the blooms, there are wilted petals</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
yellowing and wilting in stunted dreams</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
& gardeners, early in the morning, pick them up</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
weep for them and not even their tears</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
drenching the rotting life resuscitate them to life</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
i will never tell you to behave like a grown-up, dear
Cheptoo,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
because being grown-up has stunted me</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
this society wants me to act like an adult</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
to dress like an adult, eat like an adult, think like an
adult</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
and being an adult is no fun anymore</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
i no longer ask those curious questions like Billy and Lizzy</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
i don’t play <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">chodoko</i>
anymore, or <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">sheki</i>, or <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">koraa</i>, or use <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">fantili</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
i stopped going to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">mtelezo</i>
or swimming at <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">pango</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
because adults are expected to behave like adults</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
being an adult is no fun anymore</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
see, Cheptoo, you say anything the way you say it</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
and you don’t care and no one has any problem</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
because you are a child</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
when you are not happy, you just say it</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
and when you are happy, you show it</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
but we adults are complicated</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
a person may be happy but you won’t know</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
a person may be unhappy and you won’t know</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
sometimes they are <i>happy-unhappy</i> and still you don’t know</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
how do you do it, Cheptoo?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
they way you cry, your chest heaving</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
the way you laugh, your chuckle so full of life </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
sometimes I laugh but my insides are tearing apart</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
you see, you don’t want your enemies to know that you are unhappy</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
so you pretend to be happy even when your body is screaming
in pain</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
dear Cheptoo, if you forget everything else</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
don’t forget this:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
develop a fierce love for books</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
for though the society may want to pull you down</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
books will be your best leverage</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
read all manner of books & never let your education</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
interfere with your love for reading</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
for when you will be done with formal education</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
you will realize that the best education</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
was one that you did at your leisure</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
when no big stick was wielded</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
~echoes of the hills 29.2.2016 </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Salem Lorothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02786501839467653361noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2789428075439826847.post-57810564199906107222015-11-18T22:37:00.002-08:002015-11-18T22:48:29.584-08:00the dog with the languid eyes (sestina)<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCYazExvXwl9SSnstodCUYsaBlgBkSg6IwU4dUoKW1I7ZLjZ9s_cfC94VBEb2lllNYHjCNnSsh1s7AyjNxxnTeQj64SebpoKcB2QARie1a0rbUr7NrdNwBkZJj9ADEqirl2Q_h6fizm6o/s1600/Sad+Dog.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="245" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCYazExvXwl9SSnstodCUYsaBlgBkSg6IwU4dUoKW1I7ZLjZ9s_cfC94VBEb2lllNYHjCNnSsh1s7AyjNxxnTeQj64SebpoKcB2QARie1a0rbUr7NrdNwBkZJj9ADEqirl2Q_h6fizm6o/s400/Sad+Dog.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo credit: www.dogwallpapers.net</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "comic sans ms"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">the
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "comic sans ms"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">reliving
past joys, rehashing what once was a glorious story</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "comic sans ms"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">after
what appeared to be a long philosophical rumination on bliss</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "comic sans ms"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">the dog
skirted the idea and flipped it around</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "comic sans ms"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">he
thought, “ah, my wag will better illustrate this story”.</span></b><br />
<br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "comic sans ms"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">c) Lorot Salem/ echoes of the hills 2015</span></b><br />
<br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "comic sans ms"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">~</span></b><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "comic sans ms"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Prompt: <a href="http://poetryblogroll.blogspot.co.ke/2015/11/poets-united-midweek-motif-mercy.html">Poets United Midweek Motif: Mercy</a></span></b><br />
<br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "comic sans ms"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Poet's Notes:</span></b><br />
<br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "comic sans ms"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The prompt has invited poets to write a poem on the subject of Mercy. I decided to try a sestina. </span></b></div>
Salem Lorothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02786501839467653361noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2789428075439826847.post-89785501194340575092015-11-17T07:46:00.003-08:002015-11-17T07:48:10.323-08:00through the slit of a cat's pair of eyes<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJNOdSSLP-5pjW0sRHSbX-o9Jei_TOev-Z1kPb3wg29UzICmdw9RqInVN_jvBvD0IvFBnvS-6SNtI5uQBd0c0-d0-Rr7Qj4XpXf68Xthr7O9lBdnhH1OiPtsDoGsjjYA9XVVvxOqCo9w8/s1600/Magpie+PIC+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJNOdSSLP-5pjW0sRHSbX-o9Jei_TOev-Z1kPb3wg29UzICmdw9RqInVN_jvBvD0IvFBnvS-6SNtI5uQBd0c0-d0-Rr7Qj4XpXf68Xthr7O9lBdnhH1OiPtsDoGsjjYA9XVVvxOqCo9w8/s640/Magpie+PIC+1.jpg" width="529" /></a></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>through the slit of a cat's pair of eyes</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>many a dream was born</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>the window: a vantage point for oft-unpondered sights</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>through the slit of a cat's pair of eyes</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>a cat looks at the host, a stranger yet a friend</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>flurry of thoughts, away from the couches</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>through the slit of a cat's pair of eyes</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>a cat may step outside of himself, sighs.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
C) Lorot Salem/echoesofthehills 2015 </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
~<br />
Note by Poet: My experiment with Triolets.<br />
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Prompt: <a href="http://magpietales.blogspot.co.ke/2015/11/mag-294.html">Magpie Tales 294</a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Photo Credit: Magpie Tales</div>
<br />
<br />Salem Lorothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02786501839467653361noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2789428075439826847.post-85365250841350453692015-11-16T05:58:00.000-08:002015-11-16T06:26:55.211-08:00a painting of a new earth<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgz0o0Q_aiBmP0Dj8HaRAfugCff9R0h6TZ7Kids-_1pzh__fJNgpvDOjkdt6bFnYsUPTaKTly4gt2MCljq_nBFMNWeV8dZWs6cvbajpN6MIV4LhMDBRjwuCj60358KBdPd2NzJWRPO-u9Q/s1600/Peace+on+earth.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="475" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgz0o0Q_aiBmP0Dj8HaRAfugCff9R0h6TZ7Kids-_1pzh__fJNgpvDOjkdt6bFnYsUPTaKTly4gt2MCljq_nBFMNWeV8dZWs6cvbajpN6MIV4LhMDBRjwuCj60358KBdPd2NzJWRPO-u9Q/s640/Peace+on+earth.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
I took a paper yesterday and drew earth.<br />
<br />
sitting, back turned against the bravado of the city,<br />
i thought that this city can be deceptive<br />
so I turned my back against it<br />
and faced the horizons,<br />
the rushing clouds above<br />
like fingers, caressing the promises<br />
of unrequited love<br />
<br />
the textured drawing,<br />
the focussed pencil tip<br />
the unassuming aura<br />
all lent themselves<br />
to a drawing of a new earth<br />
<br />
it was one huge drawing<br />
with no countries<br />
because in my painter's eye<br />
a borderless earth seemed appealing<br />
<br />
it was a flagless earth I drew<br />
because in my painter's eye<br />
i envisioned a world without<br />
shackles flags bring<br />
<br />
crying, my pencil<br />
lingered on the beak of a pigeon<br />
flying across,<br />
while below<br />
a man, with a kalashnikov,<br />
took aim<br />
<br />
in despondency, this time shedding tears,<br />
i let my pencil complete the drawing<br />
the kalashnikov-wielding man<br />
standing on stumps that were once his legs<br />
one of his arms amputated<br />
<br />
i then bent and placed my ear on his heart<br />
and i heard torrents of tears, like a broken sewage,<br />
his chest heaved, his stumps gave way<br />
and i cried for a long time<br />
my tears staining my paint<br />
<br />
after what seemed so long,<br />
i stepped back and wiped my tears<br />
and whispered to my paint:<br />
"I never knew you were in this kind of pain..."<br />
<br />
C) Salem Lorot/echoesofthehills 2015<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Salem Lorothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02786501839467653361noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2789428075439826847.post-32921614802078562832015-04-05T23:19:00.001-07:002015-04-05T23:19:38.403-07:00Her Last Text: (In Memory of Garissa Victims)<!--[if !mso]>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">On 2<sup>nd</sup> April 2015, terrorists killed
147 students at Garissa University College. Kenya mourns them. This poem is my
attempt to understand this sad episode.</span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">**</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">This was her last
text:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGXrfjhfkSaIb90HxJJImWqK20SRxEos8iyu3aEsZcJKlEn8B-Gt3hXsnljB-OCOEiQ1k_ZXFnI9oivy0IxkOJejQpWR3ShfWDNm5S11TuRBWOeH5wbmhBzyS3wQ_umuTPeZhNRWQ1op0/s1600/Last+SMS.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGXrfjhfkSaIb90HxJJImWqK20SRxEos8iyu3aEsZcJKlEn8B-Gt3hXsnljB-OCOEiQ1k_ZXFnI9oivy0IxkOJejQpWR3ShfWDNm5S11TuRBWOeH5wbmhBzyS3wQ_umuTPeZhNRWQ1op0/s1600/Last+SMS.jpg" height="320" width="299" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Please babe,
they are getting to us. Everyone in Nancy’s cube has been shot dead. Please
pray for us. They are coming here; we are next. How’s the situation outside?
Kenya Defence Forces are not here yet. Please tell them we are being killed;
let them come to our rescue. Babe, in case I never see you again, just know I
love you and will always love you. Bye babe and pray for us. I’m with Milly too…May
God help us.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Translated by Nekesa Wanjala</i>)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Desperation, plea for
help, outpouring of love</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And faith—faith in
God</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">That He will help her</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">From her killers.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Akinyi left that text
to us</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And is now dead</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">She is one of the 147—</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">147 whose heads were
shattered by terrorists’ bullets</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">At Garissa.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Akinyi was a student
at Garissa University College</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">With her hopes and
dreams</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Her parents must have
invested in her</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">To give her a better
life</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">But Thursday, 2<sup>nd</sup>
April 2015</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Was a Dark Thursday</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Akinyi was shot at—and
died. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">A painful death.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The announcement came:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Dry statistics—147 DEAD</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">AT GARISSA UNIVERSITY
COLLEGE</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In other words, it
has happened</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">They are <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">dead</i>, we can’t <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">undead</i> them.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">How do you tell a
parent that her daughter—</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Safely tucked in
school—died violently</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">By a gun, in school?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">How do you explain to
her</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">That her jewel is no
more</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And that her body is
lying lifeless</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">At Chiromo Mortuary?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">How?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And how do you, as a
parent, read her last text</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">When she still
breathed, hearing gun-shots</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In the next cube, her
colleagues screaming</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And the next minute
the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">boom boom</i> of a gun</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And the chilling
silence of death.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">What can prepare you
for this moment</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The moment when your
daughter was crying out for help</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">But you weren’t there</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The searing guilt,
the scorched conscience </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Of a moment you
abdicated your parental duty</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">As your daughter
called out for help</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">But you were far away</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The moment when the
terrorist stood in front of</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Your daughter, pointed
the muzzle of the gun at her,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">As she pleaded for
help, crying out that her life be spared</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The trigger pulled,
the bullet jetting</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Yet you weren’t there
to stand in front of her</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And be shot at, and
not her</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The moment when you
should have faced her killers</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And ask them what sin
your daughter had committed</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">To die by the gun</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The moment you would
have been in that room with your daughter</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And faced death
together</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Rather than this
unbearable pain and helplessness</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The moment you would
whisper, though both of you be in the throes of death,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">That you love her and
die hugging her</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">But this text, you
can’t even respond </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">To reassure her that
she will be safe and that you are praying for her</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">You can’t respond and
tell her that you love her</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">You can’t even ask
for clarification</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">You can’t do
something, something to save her,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Something to keep her
alive</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">It is a text with a
finality, a resignation to fate or God,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">A helpless text, a
text which will haunt you</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">A text that will
always remind you of the moment your daughter</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">For the first time,
cried out for help, and you weren’t there</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Questions will
linger:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">What
if you hadn’t taken her to Garissa University College?</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">What
if you had received the text earlier and prayed for her, would God have saved
her?</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">What
if you were there with the killers, would you have wrestled their guns and bit
their hands so as to spare your daughter’s life?</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">What
if she escaped, would she be alive?</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">What
if RECCE Squad killed the terrorists earlier, would she have survived?</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">What
if she hid in a wardrobe?</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">What
if she smeared herself in blood to mock death?</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Did
Milly die too?</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">A thousand what-ifs,
yet your adorable Akinyi</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Is dead. Lifeless. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Akinyi who the other
day was laughing</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Perhaps planning to
visit for the Easter</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Akinyi who encouraged
you to sacrifice a little longer</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">For her education</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">With a promise of a
good job</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">So that you may be
relieved</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">That Akinyi, your
loving daughter Akinyi,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Is no more</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And in her place is
this text</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And lingering
questions</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">What prepared you for
this?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">How do you dig your
daughter’s grave?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">What strength do you
summon</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">To look at her
shattered brain?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">What amount of hate,
you will wonder,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Will drive any man to
kill your jewel</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In so ruthless a
manner?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">What deep-seated
religious extremism will </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Be lodged in a man’s
heart as to shoot your daughter?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Why your gentle,
graceful, genial daughter?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">You will remember
your village squabbles</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">A chicken thief summoned
under a tree and fined</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">A fight over land
boundary</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">A quarrel over an
unpaid debt</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">A public beating of
an adulterer</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">A cross-examination
of a witch</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">A baraza for a boy
who has impregnated a girl</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In all these, there
was a reason for disgruntlement</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And if people fought,
it was for a reason</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">But this!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Someone just shoots
your daughter at school</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">She didn’t steal a
book</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">She wasn’t in a love
triangle</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">She didn’t steal
someone’s money</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">She fought no one,
she quarrelled no one</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">She was your peaceful
daughter</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Studying in school</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Yet she has been shot….
in the head!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And you ask yourself
questions</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Whether what evil eye
in the village is not happy with your daughter</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Or perhaps who cursed
you</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Or who you wronged
and is sending you this affliction</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">But you don’t
remember any such</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">For you are a
peaceful person.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">So, why was your
daughter shot?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And you are told that
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Killed her because
of<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>‘religious extremism’</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">(an amorphous phrase
you can’t surmise) </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">or because ‘Kenya
invaded Somalia’</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">You still ask but why
your daughter</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And you are told that
these terrorists</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Kill any Kenyan to
send a message to Kenya</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And you struggle to
understand all this</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">How any person would
kill your daughter</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">To send a message to
Kenya</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">As if your daughter
was Uhuru to send troops to Somalia</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">But you will be
shocked at how one, under religion,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Would kill your
daughter</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">If one prayed to a
rock, who bothered him?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">If one worshipped the
sun, who bothered him?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Who troubled those
who hid in a dungeon, bespectacled with goggles,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Waiting for the end
of the world?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Don’t we have witches
who still dance naked, bumping on our doors?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Don’t our people
commune with the ancestors</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And speaking to a
mountain, can tell who killed our loved ones?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">But who has bothered
them?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Who has killed them?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Haven’t we, in our
tolerance, allowed them to worship whoever they worship?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">So, what changed, you
will ask,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">That your daughter
was killed?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Looking at your
daughter’s shattered head</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Her eyes never
recognizable</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Her face, a horror to
watch,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">A face which the
other day lit with love</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And smiles and warmth
and brilliance</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">A face which, despite
the hard rural life, kept you</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Happy</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">A face which gave you
courage to face tomorrow</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">But now, a mangled
flesh, paler than death</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Horrid than horrid
can ever be</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And you will still
ask yourself,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Akinyi, what wrong
did you do to these religious extremists?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">When you prayed, did
you lift your Bible a little higher?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Did you mock them?
Did you mock their God?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Did you challenge
them? Did you anger them?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">How Akinyi?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">But Akinyi wouldn’t
respond</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">But your head would
spin at all this</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">This senseless
killing, this violent death</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Of your daughter.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">No rational
explanation will make sense to you</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And it would be
better that it remains as such</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Because your life hadn’t
prepared you for</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">A time when heartless
people will descend upon your</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Unarmed daughter</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And just kill her, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">just like that</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Never thinking of how
much she meant to you</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The memories you hold
of her</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And hopes you had on
her.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Amid your sorrow, you
will stumble upon the Bible Verse</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Psalm 127:1</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Unless the LORD
builds the house, its builders labor in vain. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">UNLESS THE LORD
WATCHES OVER THE CITY, THE WATCHMEN STAND GUARD IN VAIN.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">C) Salem Lorot 2015 </span></div>
Salem Lorothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02786501839467653361noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2789428075439826847.post-89293201239075155842014-11-08T11:08:00.004-08:002014-11-08T11:09:51.590-08:00 A LETTER TO THE FUTURE<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">I imagine a
future, a future where peace reigns</span>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">In the breasts
of men</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">Where killing
the other will be regarded</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">As an affront
to society, an abominable act.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">Somebody hand
me a pen I write this letter</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">Give me a blank
paper I scribble these thoughts</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">Give me a
corner I write this letter</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">Somebody allow
me to weep my agony on this page.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">Today, let us
ask ourselves serious questions</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">Let us today
hang our dirty linen in public</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">Let us show our
festered wounds</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">Let us bare our
chests today and show our scars</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">Today, let us
prostrate ourselves to Truth.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">Truth must we
speak, O Souls which love lies,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">Clouded by
ethnic bigotry, prejudices and senseless cocoons</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">We have become
a segregationist society, too tribal</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">Too flammable,
we are explosives</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">Our hearts are
burning with hatred</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">Our consciences
are dead, we now justify murder!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">I am Pokot.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">I have Turkana
friends.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">I talk with
them and hear their dreams and hopes.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">A few months
ago, I struck friendship with an Illchamus lady</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">I have talked
and lived with Marakwet brothers.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">I work with a
Samburu.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">I share a name
with a Turkana.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">One thing that
I have learnt is the bond that unites us all.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">The love that
God has for us all.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">Another is
hardship.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">A pastoralist
boy is mostly born without the benefit of a maternity ward</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">That boy will
squeeze whatever breast-milk he may from his mother</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">Whose breasts,
symbolically and figuratively, are shrivelled from scant resources</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">Most likely, he
may not receive vaccines</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">He will not lie
in a baby-cot, a hide will suffice</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">That boy’s bath
is two mouthfuls of water, one to apply soap</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">The other to
rinse him</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">Most likely, he
may not go to school</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">And will be a herdsboy</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">When the time
comes, he will marry the girl of his dreams</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">And he will
sire other pastoralists.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">So, it gets
confusing to me when life brought forth in such hard conditions</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">Should be
easily taken away.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">It pains me to
see years of nature’s mercy upon the life of a pastoralist</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">Wasted away,
not by disease and famine, but bullets.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">As an
intellectual, I may justify the deaths at Kapedo</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">Just to fit
into my ethnic dimensions</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">I may not
understand all the dynamics</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">But I speak not
for the Pokots nor the Turkanas</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">I speak for the
mothers of those killed</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">I speak for the
wives of those killed</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">For they let
their men set forth</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">And in the
evening, they waited upon them</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif";">They were no more.</span></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">They thought
love would last forever</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">These women
would bury their sons and husbands</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">And their
hearts will cry for many nights</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">These women
will ask themselves so many questions</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">Questions like
why were their sons and husbands killed</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">The fresh grave
mounds will remain mum</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">And they will
hear people say,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif";">The Pokots are bad, The Turkanas are
bad,</span></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif";">They killed us first, we have lived here
before</span></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">And like swords
jabbed at their hearts</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">They will
receive this empty chatter</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">Through their
tears, they may whisper</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif";">Life is cruel, my husband’s life, my
son’s life</span></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif";">Is as worthless as cowdung (But not,
because even cowdung</span></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif";">is manure)</span></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">And that woman
will weep at her son’s/husband’s grave</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">Seeking
answers.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">But the mound
will now be stiff and parched</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">Just like the
hearts of men and women</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">Who killed her
son or husband.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">But the most
hurting words she will hear</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">Will not be
from the illiterate, merciless bandits</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">But from the
educated bigots.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">With the
benefit of their learning, they will spew ethnic vitriol</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">With the
fluency of overfed honey-badgers</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">They will shame
learning and walk naked</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">Crying ‘kill
them!’ ‘Kill them’</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">I exaggerate.
Though they won’t be naked</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">They would have
bared their debauched hearts</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">And that is
still nakedness.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">I imagine a
future, a future where peace reigns</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">In the breasts
of men</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">Where killing
the other will be regarded</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">As an affront
to society, an abominable act.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">Somebody hand
me a pen I write this letter</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">Give me a blank
paper I scribble these thoughts</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">Give me a
corner I write this letter</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">Somebody allow
me to weep my agony on this page.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">This is my
letter to the future</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">To the society
that a Pokot and a Turkana</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">Will realize
that cattle rustling delayed</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">Their leap into
the future.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">This is my
letter to the future</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">That speaks to
an educated Pokot or Turkana</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">To address the
underlying issues and create solutions</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">To this
problem, this problem that has held back our development</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">This is my
letter to the future </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">To lambast any
political leader who rallies behind community ignorance and braggadocio</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">To create
mistrust and hatred among us</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">This is my
letter to the future</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">To realize
eventually that we have so many big problems</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">Awaiting us, in
addition to cattle-rustling and border disputes,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">This is my
letter to the future</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">To mothers and
women to take up their rightful role</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">In bringing
peace</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">For they have
been the most affected</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">And the cry of
a woman can move men to action</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">This is my
letter to the future</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">To County
Leaders to spur development to its people</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">And give priority
to peace dialogues</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">This is my
letter to the future</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">To everybody to
preach peace</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">This is my
letter to the future</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">To change the
nature of our discourse</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">From the
mundane to evidence-based and solution-oriented.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: large;">c) Lorot Salem </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Salem Lorothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02786501839467653361noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2789428075439826847.post-86822689446976866382014-10-27T05:19:00.000-07:002014-10-27T05:19:26.593-07:00The Mysterious Feet<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOLZMaP6M97YlXuOxoG0VTc8FNHatDSEt7W6acSTVSF0dMkYXzBHl1QTcfXkCvoqw2YqJaGcv89SI4A_5cxl0cSetds85Z2KJYjJMyJP7RKxvZrvENWPGUOurd3W9tvjdx1bxYLVAwn40/s1600/Socks.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOLZMaP6M97YlXuOxoG0VTc8FNHatDSEt7W6acSTVSF0dMkYXzBHl1QTcfXkCvoqw2YqJaGcv89SI4A_5cxl0cSetds85Z2KJYjJMyJP7RKxvZrvENWPGUOurd3W9tvjdx1bxYLVAwn40/s1600/Socks.jpg" height="320" width="318" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo Credit: Magpie Tales</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
<br />
In my dream, I just saw those feet in socks<br />
And this intrigued me.<br />
<br />
Those feet rested on my table,<br />
near my coffee and cookies<br />
My jam lay opened.<br />
<br />
Whose feet were these?<br />
I tried to lift up my head but my head felt heavy.<br />
<br />
C) Salem Lorot 2014 <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Prompt: <a href="http://magpietales.blogspot.com/2014/10/mag-243.html">Magpie Tales</a><br />
<br />Salem Lorothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02786501839467653361noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2789428075439826847.post-17928071034224532382014-08-06T08:38:00.000-07:002014-08-06T08:38:35.051-07:00The Aioi Bridge<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"></span><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">It was my gruffy-voiced History teacher—</span>
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<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Who concluded his lesson of World War II</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">By stating that the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki</span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Boom! </span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And more than 150,000 people DIED!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Said these things.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">What my History teacher never knew </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">When it was bombed.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">O! Hiroshima was so full of life; it went about her
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<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Like elands on the savannah, Hiroshima enchanted.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">See Hiroshima! See Hiroshima in her full spleandour!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">See her peoples! More than 90,000 alive, just breathing!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">See the eland as small ash, not even the horns spared.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">After I had mourned Hiroshima and Nagasaki,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I thought that it was befitting tribute to the departed
souls</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Because the eland in her beauty would always remind us</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Of the beauty of our souls.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The Aioi Bridge is our bridge to everlasting peace.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I hang this picture on my bed to remind myself</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">To look at the Aioi Bridge.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">It is the bridge to find me, to find my peace.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">C) Salem Lorot/ echoesofthehills 2014 </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In response to a prompt by Poet's United </span></div>
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<a href="http://poetryblogroll.blogspot.com/2014/08/poets-united-midweek-motif-hiroshima-or.html">Midweek Motif ~ Hiroshimaor Ring a Bell</a></div>
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Salem Lorothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02786501839467653361noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2789428075439826847.post-16148971866884418732014-06-15T05:33:00.001-07:002014-06-15T05:33:46.470-07:00SATAO<br />
Before you read this poem, kindly read the story below on the death of Satao. I am griefing!<br />
<br />
<a href="http://tsavotrust.org/news/2014/6/13/kwaheri-satao-saying-goodbye-to-a-tsavo-icon">The Story on the Death of Satao</a><br />
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Deeply grieved, my heart bleeds;<br /> Moved, shocked, tears well my eyes<br /> I imagine how you met your death--<br /> They came, and with cruelty in their breasts<br /> They felled you, Satao.<br /> All for a price of tusks? All for the price of ivory? Of trinkets?<br /> Had they stopped for a moment and be held in awe of your majesty<br /> Had they watched, even briefly, your spleandour<br /> Had they had forewarning of our broken hearts<br /> May be they might have spared you, Satao.<br /> But those heartless men, lacking in finesse,<br /> Savagely killed you.<br /> Sometimes I wonder to myself<br /> What I will tell my children, many years from now,<br /> All elephants gone. Killed. Killed. *Tears*<br /> With your cool spirit, Satao, did you have to die this cruelly?<br /> All for a price of tusks? All for the price of ivory?<br /> Can they place a price tag of your worth?<br /> Can they measure the size of the savannah and tell me how much<br /> A footprint of an elephant costs? Can they?<br /> Can they construct a sunset with an elephant in an ecosystem? Can they?<br /> What tomfoolery! What effrontery I countenance!<br /> Man, go kill your lot, leave the animal kingdom alone?<br /> Go kill yourselves, rob your lot's teeth, steal their hair<br /> But I say, leave our animals alone!<br /> Leave our animals alone, you damned creature!<br /> Go gallop to your ruination, you heartless pavements!<br /> Go to your industries and manufacture your dummy ivories<br /> Go kill your lot, go thieving elsewhere, go shedding blood elsewhere<br /> We mourn Satao,<br /> He never started fights, he never picked quarrel with anyone<br /> He concerned himself with his business at Tsavo<br /> He never stole somebody's land<br /> He never slept with anyone's wife<br /> He broke no law<br /> He was kind to strangers who pried on his privacy<br /> Yet Satao was killed. Gruesomely killed. <br /> They say that when poachers pounced on him<br /> Brandishing pangas and blunt weapons<br /> They say Satao let out one final cry<br /> A muffled cry of wild consternation<br /> Something like, 'Spare my life, what wrong<br /> Have I done to face death this cruel!'<br /> Satao, O the most humble Satao,<br /> Pleaded with them, his tusks spread out in supplication,<br /> Told them, 'Friends, what wrong have I done? I can correct my ways<br /> If to perdition you are keen to send me to'<br /> Satao's body was bestraddled on the ground<br /> In earnest plea for mercy.<br /> Satao cried and cried and cried.<br /> "Spare me! Spare me, brothers!"<br /> Not even the hoarse beseeching softened their hearts.<br /> In total surrender, with tusks in supplication,<br /> Arms raised the pangas and when they descended<br /> To Satao's tusks they fell...<br /> Chop! Chop! Chop!<br /> Like a civilian in total surrender, Satao hoped,<br /> Having an inkling of the fairness of man in warfare,<br /> Yet no rules of war fairness did Satao get<br /> Chop! Chop! Chop!<br /> Hear Satao gasping for breath, his blood flowing on the savannah<br /> See Satao, see him now, See his legs kicking,<br /> See Satao now, his eyes pained by the betrayal<br /> See Satao, see his energy ooze away, see his essence leaving,<br /> See Satao's tail lifting up in the air in such pain...<br /> See Satao's padded feet pressing against the savannah<br /> Feel Satao's heart now, feel his broken heart, feel his sadness<br /> Hear Satao breathing out his last.. hear his last cry pierce the savannah<br />
They say that that day Satao died<br /> Baby elephants came at night and held a vigil<br /> That night, as Poor Satao's face lay defaced,<br /> They say a small rush of wind circled around him<br /> Singing an elegy to him.<br /> That night, there was silence in the savannah<br /> Satao lay dead.<br /> That morning he had met with his fellow friends<br /> And had planned to meet at their favourite watering hole<br /> But here, in a cold night in Tsavo,<br /> Satao lay dead<br /> Animals wondered what lofty hatred and revenge<br /> Was exacted on Satao<br /> But of what benefit were answers to these questions?<br /> Satao was no more.<br /> Friendly and majestic Satao lay dead.<br /> Not far away from his home (because he preferred keeping his space)<br /> You might not believe this, Satao was killed<br /> At his home, far away from vehicles, far away from thugs, far away<br /> From disease and poverty.<br /> Killed, not by his own, but by aliens!<br /> Such is death! Such mystery!<br />
~Poem by <a class="profileLink" data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/user.php?id=100007261779050" href="https://www.facebook.com/salem.lorot" id="js_3">Salem Lorot</a><br />
<a class="_58cn" data-ft="{"tn":"*N","type":104}" href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/satao?source=feed_text&story_id=1445219192396793"><span class="_58cl">#</span><span class="_58cm">Satao</span></a> <a class="_58cn" data-ft="{"tn":"*N","type":104}" href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/kws?source=feed_text&story_id=1445219192396793"><span class="_58cl">#</span><span class="_58cm">KWS</span></a> <a class="_58cn" data-ft="{"tn":"*N","type":104}" href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/saveourelephants?source=feed_text&story_id=1445219192396793"><span class="_58cl">#</span><span class="_58cm">SaveOurElephants</span></a> <a class="_58cn" data-ft="{"tn":"*N","type":104}" href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/tsavo?source=feed_text&story_id=1445219192396793"><span class="_58cl">#</span><span class="_58cm">Tsavo</span></a>Salem Lorothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02786501839467653361noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2789428075439826847.post-29952486706659074152014-04-09T09:22:00.004-07:002014-04-09T09:22:44.893-07:00Meditations of a Father<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> </b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Son, when I
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magnificent—</b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Was my voice harsh?</b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">When I urged you to
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Learned in poetry, science,
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Did I intimidate you,
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Am I too harsh to
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Do you see me as a
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Son, when I speak a
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Son, am I harsh, when
I let you in into the greatest secrets of the universe?</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Do I bore you, Son?</b></div>
Salem Lorothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02786501839467653361noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2789428075439826847.post-21750228952142549972014-02-10T05:06:00.002-08:002014-02-10T05:06:49.181-08:00Of Love<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: "Palatino Linotype";"></span></b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: "Palatino Linotype";"></span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: "Palatino Linotype";">Tell me, O Plato, what I should conceive of this,</span>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: "Palatino Linotype";">Bidden as I was to a fluttering feeling ( flattering,
perhaps?) that I once felt</span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: "Palatino Linotype";">Which enslaved, rather than ennobled,</span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: "Palatino Linotype";">( In the same way as you, while with Aristodemus)?</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: "Palatino Linotype";">How, in this encomium of love,</span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: "Palatino Linotype";">Will I be ready to die for love?</span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: "Palatino Linotype";">Or like virtuous Alcestis, die at the behest of love?</span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: "Palatino Linotype";">Wouldn't I, like Achilles who avenged for Patroclus,</span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: "Palatino Linotype";">in my small turf of love, be the flute-player,</span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: "Palatino Linotype";">Of love redefined, honourable and virtuous?</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: "Palatino Linotype";">Teach me, then, O Plato,</span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: "Palatino Linotype";">everlasting possession of the good.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: "Palatino Linotype";">Wouldn't I want to seek immortality</span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: "Palatino Linotype";">To leave behind glorious tales</span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: "Palatino Linotype";">Of love, pure and true,</span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: "Palatino Linotype";">in the breasts of men,</span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: "Palatino Linotype";">Least to the awe of nature?</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: "Palatino Linotype";">C) Salem Lorot /echoes of the hills 2014 </span></div>
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found a very nice quote on love:</span></b></div>
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<b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: "Palatino Linotype";">"Love is said to be the god who</span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
Salem Lorothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02786501839467653361noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2789428075439826847.post-39959951861637229172013-12-10T23:37:00.000-08:002013-12-11T00:07:21.219-08:00Little Things to Make This World a Better Place<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4LuH8UrWGvXqm55_ETMghylpVnCB_EmPw8VNjOg8Vhk1L14Y0UgPaCGcgv6kUQqwKbtXxIvOw82rfjSzdn7HTh6XG2_qb-i7LjyJoaE-x6vYr7qV3LrjKfGoqGAGo2R9ptbGiA1YoRzo/s1600/Gandhi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="481" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4LuH8UrWGvXqm55_ETMghylpVnCB_EmPw8VNjOg8Vhk1L14Y0UgPaCGcgv6kUQqwKbtXxIvOw82rfjSzdn7HTh6XG2_qb-i7LjyJoaE-x6vYr7qV3LrjKfGoqGAGo2R9ptbGiA1YoRzo/s640/Gandhi.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gandhi. Photo credit: Google.</td></tr>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></b></div>
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"></span><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Pilgrim, the Higher Truth has thus be revealed to
me </span>
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<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">in a most profound way. I sat reading Gandhi’s
Autobiography </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">'The Story of My Experiments with Truth'</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>and inside
the covers, I picked one important legacy he left for the world: </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Service.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">This world, Pilgrim, cries out for service. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Men and women who can do something for others—</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">not for money’s sake, not for fame’s sake, </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">but for the fulfillment of their mission on this
Earth.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">All around me I see these gallant men and women.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">You might not find them on billboards and
monuments</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">You see them everyday, some helping an old man</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Crossing the road, some helping out an illiterate
read a letter.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And when we are long gone, Pilgrim,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">It will not matter what we accumulated in our
sojourn here</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">But the little things we did to make this world a
better place.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Note:</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I have finished reading Mahatma’s Gandhi
Autobiography titled <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">‘The Story of My Experiments
with Truth’</b>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I hesitate to comment
much on the book as I need time to digest what Gandhi’s life means to me. Of
course, Gandhi is well known for the <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">‘Satyagraha’
</b>and as <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">satyagrahi</b> ( or would-be’s),
we have important lessons to pick there.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Allow me to say this. I have admired a great deal
Gandhi’s <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">service to humanity</b>. He
eschewed self aggrandizement. He strove for the others. As an advocate, I
admired his truthfulness in his legal career, albeit intermittently. If a
client was untrue to him, he would not take up the case. I also remember him
pointing out an error to the court, which had the potential harm of them losing
the case. This, despite the fact that his Senior in the case thought otherwise.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">On humility, Gandhi would travel Third Class in
trains and experience what those passengers went through ( Until later, much to his regret, when his health failed him and thus could not). Of course there are
numerous other examples from his life. But today, it appears that humility is
equated to weakness. Pomp, braggadocio, chest-thumping are seen as important
ingredients for upward mobility. I have always remembered, much to my
consternation, my clients telling me “you are so soft”, the other party needs
somebody who will shout and create so much noise and intimidation.
Unfortunately, I have never been this person. I always want to state my
position and my convictions calmly and deliberately. Fanfare is not for me.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I intend to experiment on some of Gandhi’s
experiments. As for now, I would not want to comment further. But there are
important lessons I have drawn from the book.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
Salem Lorothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02786501839467653361noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2789428075439826847.post-66441997623690335972013-11-26T10:44:00.000-08:002013-11-26T10:44:07.776-08:00Council of Sages<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">When I have soaked the endless conversations</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Just about any blabber adults will churn out<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Accusations and counter-accusations,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Truths, half-truths and outright lies<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Words which heal not<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Words, like javelin thrown,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Aimed to create heroes and zeroes<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">When I am drenched in the ramblings<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The whys and wherefores<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The thou-art-the-problem and thou-art-the-devil<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">When I have immersed myself in all this<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I retreat to my safe haven, a quiet corner,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Get myself a nice book and read<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And soon, I am thrust into a different world<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The sorrow that sunk me a moment earlier<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Is all but a distant, tiny wisp<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Around me now, is my “Council of Sages”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">With them, I am holding a serious conversation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Salem Lorothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02786501839467653361noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2789428075439826847.post-42230097350363037132013-11-12T07:13:00.005-08:002013-11-12T07:15:20.606-08:00My Memory Palace<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><b>I will build myself my memory palace</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><b>Where, in their loci, I will store all I want to remember.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><b>I would want to store facts, like the savants,</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><b>Churn out facts, gobble every other factoids there is.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><b>I would know my memory palace well,</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><b>Have an image of where I placed my wristband</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><b>On a sloppy Saturday midnight.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><b>And I will not write anything.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><b>I will not keep any notebook or diary.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><b>If you were to ask me, perchance,</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><b>The fourth line of Shakespeare's Macbeth,</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><b>I will never falter</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><b>And if you were to ask me to memorise 100,000 digits back and forth</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><b>I will.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><b>I am tired of my forgetfulness</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><b>( I forget whether tomorrow is going to be your birthday)</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><b>And it hurts, and it costs me</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><b>All that I want to build for myself, right now</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><b>is a memory palace.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><b>To memorize the Black's Law Dictionary ( just for the heck of it)</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><b>And see my mental gymnastics do the trick</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><b>I want to claim back my memory</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><b>And throw away these extensions to my memory</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><b>Like the Greek Orators, I want to speak from within me</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><b>To retain in as much as I read</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><b>C) Salem Lorot 2013/ echoesofthehills </b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><b>****</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><b>I am reading a book titled 'Moonwalking with Einstein', a book on the art of remembering by Joshua Foer. It is an exciting book that I bought off the streets on one lazy Saturday afternoon. Quite some read. </b></span>Salem Lorothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02786501839467653361noreply@blogger.com3