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.