In the broken bottles are men
By marital issues; overweighed.
drowning dreams in streams of
fermented drinks, bodies ashamed
of their roles in an existence captive
to a cycle of recurring mistakes.
In the aisles of gods, broken women
piously pray for miracles to free
them from vicious violent blows
as they kneel on thin carpets of veiled
sin, heads bowed worshiping, while
the echoes of their prayers are drowned
by the politics of the clergy’s greed.
Broken bones heal, but these scars of time
tell the story of young minds trapped in
a circuit of reincarnating ghosts.
Day after day in this erosion they grow older
— the fumes of hate wafting from their own
desperation leads to a stupor of indifference
when they see dreams drained into the lakes of
a political system’s unquenchable gluttony
— and the teacher preaching water to thirsty kids,
while he sips from his thermos of liquor,
trying to escape the darkness.
This poem was published in the 9th Issue of PoeticAfrica magazine.
Please click here to download.
Read – Blessed be Wawa – Juma Shahid (Kenya)
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