I Have a Question, Father

[ Image from pediatrician-in-swaziland.blogspot.com]




My eyes don't lie to me, father,
My ears don't lie to me, father

When I hear you insult mum
Yet say that I should not insult my teachers
I feel like I don't understand all this

You make us live in fear, father,
Mum tells us, "Shhhssh, your dad is coming"
And when you finally come, we hide under our blankets

That is when you sing, father:
"Mututho, utabaki mi nitaenda na beer
Eeeh Mututho utabaki mi nitaenda na beer"
You would sing and sing
And tell mum to warm your food

Then I will hear you insult mum
Bang the table, slap mum
You will beat mum, she will cry
I will wake up, shield mum
So that you will stop
But you will beat her again and again

In the morning, father,
You will tell me to obey teachers at school
And be a good child
But when I  look at mum:
Her swollen eyes, her cracked lips
Her bruised neck, her fractured forehead
All these, father, make me not understand you

In the school my friend Tom tells me
That his father plays with his mum
That he has not heard his father insult his mother
That they laugh everyday

Yesterday, father, I saw Tom's mother
Her eyes were good, her lips alright
On her neck she had a very good necklace
I saw her and I cried for mum

I have a question, father,
If Tom's father doesn't beat his mother
Why do you beat mother?


C) Lorot Salem 2011

My Pen Guide Me

( This is the third of poems to celebrate women on 8th March on the occasion of International Women's Day 2011)

[ Image from
gammabama.com ]




My pen guide me to write this
About a story untold
About a person unknown
About a feat uncelebrated


My pen guide me to write this
Let you be the judge
Let you do justice to this soul
Let you lead the story-line

There is a woman
Her name never mentioned in the telly
Her speech never heard in a Conference
Her photo never archived anywhere
Her story tucked in her heart, almost exploding

There is a woman
Every inch the ingredient of a heroine
Every bit the throb of a refreshing story
Every angle the pulse of life

My pen guide me to write this
About a story untold
About a person unknown
About a feat uncelebrated

My pen guide me to write this
Let you be the judge

Let you do justice to this soul
Let you lead the story-line

There is a woman
Who wakes up at crack of dawn
Just to have tea for children before Sunrise;
There is a woman
Who has folded the sacred scroll of the community
inside her heart, yet she is no sentry
There is a woman
Uncorrupted, if she has no food she smiles
 

This woman, my pen guide me to write about
To let the world know; to curve her a place in history
My pen guide me, let you be the judge
To write the story of this woman
Let you do justice to this soul, let you lead the story-line

My pen guide me to write this
About a story untold
About a person unknown
About a feat uncelebrated.

C) Lorot Salem 2011

Hongera Mama Wangari Maathai

( This is the second poem of a series of poems to celebrate women on the International Women's Day on 8th March 2011. This poem honours the Nobel Laureate Prof. Wangari Maathai)

[ Image from ogiek.org ]


You need no introduction, Mama
As lawyers will say, " We take judicial notice"
For you are not only a household-name in Kenya
But also as far as Tajikistan.

I was at Uhuru Park the other day
And as I lay on green grass and stared at the blue skies
A nudging thought ate my mind:
What if your hair hadn't been pulled?
What if you hadn't been whipped and tear-gassed?
What if you hadn't put your life on the line?

Hongera Mama Wangari Maathai
Thank you for that heroic act.

Oft-times I see you on telly
That broad smile, that motherly head-gear
You talking about our trees, our rivers
And our grandchidren
In you, I don't see a person
Instead I see a generation of children unborn
In you, I don't see Kenya
Instead I see our world and its beauty

Sadly, too, Mama
Behind you on the telly I see a shadow
Of an axe felling a forest,  Highrise building on a wet area
Behind you I see a plume of Greenhouse Gases
Behind you I see an Enviro-assassin, most devious
Most vile

But again, Mama, hongera
For fighting for Uhuru Park:
For in that one single act
We escape the concrete jungle
And if Nature be for us, we are on the right path.

In deed, you need no introduction
As the Nairobi morning sun kisses Uhuru Park
As the birds chirp, tired souls sleep on grass
As children row their midget boats
As the tranquility tiptoes to numbed minds
Somehow, your name is immortalized
Hongera Mama Wangari Maathai.

Hongera-- A Kiswahili word for thank you, congratulations.
Mama-- A Kiswahili word for mum, it is a respected title for a mother.


C) Lorot Salem 2011

On The Sixth Day God Created a Woman

( This is the first poem of a series of poems to celebrate women on the International Women's Day on 8th March 2011)

[ Image from
petergreenberg.com ]




A woman, true to God's artistry, is a work of art
Every bit a masterpiece, coupled with a heart;
It is no coincidence, fellow mortal, when all is said
That the Good Book reckons "fearfully made"
I imagine God saying this on Day Six:

" And now Eve I create thee
From a rib, thine breath mouldeth thou
Out of Adam, I create thee"

But God looks askance at his work
Fetches for an angel saying:

" Forgot the tear-ducts,
Eve won't be eve without tears"

The angel fetches it and God says,
"It is good"

Upon opening the cranium, God tut-tuts
Fetches the angel again saying:

"Need to reduce the brain size,
fetch me a spatula
Eve needs to communicate"

The angel fetches it and God says,
"It is good"

But upon feeling the palm of his work
God again says to the angel:

"Quick! A sandpaper!"

Upon making Eve's palm soft, He says,
"It is good"

Adam appears from flowers
Retorts: "God, this is not fair,
All the day you have modelled Eve
Yet for me you just blew into my nostrils!"

Upon which God, in his Grace, responds:
" Good Adam, thou art a man
Tear-ducts thine eyes don't need
Soft palms thine hands don't need
A fair creation in Eve have I created
All for thee, Adam "


* I have made reference to the woman's brain being reduced by God. This is scientifically correct ( I mean their brains being smaller than those of men). On my reading I discover that though small, a woman's brain has many nerve cells and thus able to communicate effectively than men. So, that stanza was not in any way derogatory.


C) Lorot Salem 2011

We Hold These Truths To Be Self-Evident

We hold these truths to be self-evident
that all men and women are created equal
that both are endowed with certain inalienable rights
that among these are unencumbered hearts, body and soul

We affirm that no man should raise an arm
Be it in malice, misdirected anger or chauvinism
Against a woman
that history has writ that no battles
no victory
no fair judgment was cast
on a society that butchered women souls

We affirm that in the nature of things
that man could chase an animal into a river
that man could jump a building to capture a ruffian
that man could scale a wall to fix a window pane
that women could walk unharmed in raging battlefields
that women were never intended to be objects of hate
that women were designed to create peace

In light of these, this declaration is hereby made
on this 11th of February  in the  year of our Lord 2011
that all men and women are created equal
that our laws will punish a man who maims or kills a woman, imagines,
or acts in a manner to suggest that he intends to do so and all other
intentions or acts not captured here.

C) Lorot Salem 2011