AFRICAN ROYAL VOICE: I KNOW MY DREAM SHALL COME TRUE!-By Lydia Ireri

AFRICAN ROYAL VOICE: I KNOW MY DREAM SHALL COME TRUE!-By Lydia Ireri: I had a dream last night, That the inscriptions of our wedding invitation card read, 'Muthoni weds Otieno' And the feeling was b...

I KNOW MY DREAM SHALL COME TRUE!-By Lydia Ireri

I had a dream last night,
That the inscriptions of our wedding invitation card read,
'Muthoni weds Otieno'
And the feeling was breath-taking!
Walking down the aisle,
With the Love of my life,
Otieno,
On our wedding day!

My great grandpa Kenyatta,
Sent me off ceremoniously,
While my lord's great grandpa Oginga,
Welcomed me home in a bull's slaughter,
More than a queen, I say,
On our wedding day!

Grandpa Oginga said my beauty is more than a galaxy,
The gap on my upper jaw was irresistible,
He called me Jaber,
Our daughter,
On our wedding day!

My father was proud of me,
The daughter of the land Africa, he called me,
He said I kept the commandments,
More than the Israelists,
On our wedding day!

Mukimo stewed with fish yawa!
Ugali stewed with njahi ndakwira!
Dug a well of saliva to our people,
On our wedding day!

Merged the bride's and groom's tents,
For all of us are one people!
We called each other,
'Our people'
Daughters and sons of Africa,
On our wedding day!

Our honeymoon begun at Kericho,
And the people welcomed us selflessly,
We went down to the lake-side,
And the joy was immeasurable,
At Mt.Kenya we laid our heads down,
And they all labeled us Twana twitu,
Our journey posed at the land of novaa,
And we were loved by all,
From the beautiful land of our people,
Kenya!
Live long.

My Gourd-By Lydia Ireri

If I desert my gourd
Birds of the air shall build their nests
Spiders shall lay webs
Ants shall crack my gourd
Not being spared by the rats

If I abandon my gourd
Strangers shall carry it with them
Shepherds shall put blood instead of clean water
Terrorists shall use the fragments as weapons
While the young cobra finds habitation
In my gourd
If I reject it

If I leave my gourd outside
The scorching sun shall expand it
And
When the rain falls
My gourd shall contract and break
It shall possess shades of a dead chameleon
Whose permanent undesirable colour is evident
And an odour that scatters both friend and adversary


Then I ask myself
Must I abandon my precious gourd?
I must not leave,
abandon,
reject
or desert
My gourd

I stand!

I shall hide my gourd in the secret places
I shall save it from uncondusive conditions
I shall wait till dad sends me to the river
To fetch clean water
And carry the water in my gourd home
To save Ma, Da and my People!

CHILD OF SHAME-By Lydia Ireri

The wound is still fresh
Of the blood oozing like Nile
And the raging memories converge
In a youthful delicate mind
Of when I was four

Why does it take so long to fade away?
May be like the days I soaked my bed with pee
Disappeared beyond Kilimanjaro

When I was five
Mama packed to great grand’s land
And left me.
Little did she know
She packed my identity and left
I lost myself
For eternity

They call me a child of shame
Because my bones are stiff to shake unlike Rihana
They call me a cursed child
For my beauty is not like of Ma-maid
They say I am a disgrace
Since my voice grows horse every moment I sing
They call me a mosquito
I have no features of an African woman, they say

I shut the doors of my ears when they say to all
I wish the Earth would open its mouth for me, when they say
I curse the gods when my people say

She, You
A child of shame you are!
You can shake your bones not
She has no melody
Your thin body shame us
And after all
You bear your mother's sins
A Child of shame
Born with the deadly virus
Ukimwi.

CHILD OF SHAME-By Lydia Ireri

The wound is still fresh
Of the blood oozing like Nile
And the raging memories converge
In a youthful delicate mind
Of when I was four

Why does it take so long to fade away?
May be like the days I soaked my bed with pee
Disappeared beyond Kilimanjaro

When I was five
Mama packed to great grand’s land
And left me.
Little did she know
She packed my identity and left
And I lost myself
For eternity

They call me a child of shame
Because my bones are stiff to shake unlike Rihana
They call me a cursed child
For my beauty is not like of Ma-maid
They say I am a disgrace
Since my voice grows horse every moment I sing
They call me a mosquito
I have no features of an African woman, they say

I shut the doors of my ears when they say to all
I wish the Earth would open its mouth for me, when they say
I curse the gods when my people say

She, You
A child of shame you are!
You can shake your bones not
She has no melody
Your thin body shame us
And after all
You bear your mother's sins
A Child of shame
Born with the deadly virus
Ukimwi.

ABORTED FREEDOM?-BY Lydia Ireri

Tata Madiba,
 May his soul rest in peace!

Did Tata die a free man?
My cheeks turn pale a thousand moments
When this, traumatizing rhetorical question run through my fragile mind.

If Tata died a free man
Why do we still fight?
For the soil
We shed our blood
For fame we destroy
The dream
For pleasure
We rape Africa
For religion
We massacre
Our unhatched madibas.

If Tata died a free man
Why can I not marry
From the Foreman’s, the Governor’s, the Senator's or the neighbor's from the river side?
Why must I marry my fellow mine worker?


If Tata died a free man
Why can I not build my house
On the lake-side?
And enjoy the God-given free nature
Yet I am a daughter of the land,
Africa.

Tata said to me
Tata and his Tatas
Cooked together and ate together
Bathed together and danced together
Told stories together at the fire place
Fallowed, planted and harvested together
Where are we counted? I ask myself.

Could this be the reason Why;
Floods are sweeping us?
Stinging bees are wiping us?
Emaciated bodies are failing us?
We are painting our own land scarlet by the sword?

The gods must be angry
For aborting our freedom
Which Tata died for!