A People's Peril.

If we could unravel:
What lingers in the midst of time,
What for us sunset holds,
What for us fate has in store;
Before thrusting into warm dawn;
With unquenchable thirst for bliss,
And selling trust and souls--
To dears of malice...

We could caution our hearts,
To love and laugh with moderation.
We could control our limbs,
To dance and wander not vigorously;
But some calories reserve,
For trying times ahead...

Too bad we couldn't!
We've strayed,
We stray and we shall stray--
Again and again...

Thence we're bound to inadequacies.
We breathe abundant air of hopelessness,
We fight for crumbs--
Are devoured by vultures,
Before reaching us,
Awaiting impatiently at the low table...

We are the state's liability,
We are the state's headache:
We paint it ugly in books,
Thus infuriate owners to regret why we exist...
We are lured to prey,
On each other to survive,
As our blood and sweat:
Are siphoned for state's development!

We are made to dance--
Exposing our sacred treasures,
To violent songs of foreign gods.
Can't we speak our own language?
Can't we sing and dance to our own songs?
Why bleed struggling with jargons,
That amongst us spread vengeance--
Like bush fire.

We leave our women starving,
For beasts in the wild.
We wander about in borrowed cloaks--
Exposing our sacred treasures,
Why not retire to the wild then!

We've gripped the gospel sword,
We prophesy doom-- dawn to dusk,
Scare sinners to come for salvation;
And warm their appetites for clean words;
Fool them with magic as miracles,
Thence rob them--
With no violence,
Impoverish them...
(c) Pius Khisa.