I
Once you were a man
Upon swallowing jeers, scorns and curses
To face the knife, sunrise to sunset
What ate your manhood then?
You have colonised drinking dens
Wherein like fish you drink
Lose way home and in ditches sleep
Whilst cold and hunger wrestle mulamwa down
Whilst children's heads swell with vices...
At daybreak you return
Once men have ploughed and sowed
Tattered, then snore off
Whilst cold and hunger weigh mulamwa down
Oh, bakoki, once you're a man
What ate your manhood?
Whereto did your stamina disappear?
That allure that most often
incited girls to lose way home
from the stream, posho mill or forest
To find themselves in your bed.
That allure that most often
incited girls to tear each other
for the feel of your magic wand!
II
You have become desert rain
Showing up not at men's joints...
What in the kitchen keeps you,
When cocks are out searching?
Why cook and wash
Whilst mulamwa idly sits
Duracoating her lips and nails?
Gossiping with women about others
Whilst into their skirts you peer
And they bend over you-- their breasts precariously dangling
Has ruined your manhood!
III
The ridges mourn virginity
Stolen from their unripe damsels.
But what pleasure lies
In eating a girl
who can't even wipe her buttocks clean
after defeacation?
What do you whisper in her ears
Too innocent to stomach adult wisdom;
But exciting childish nonsense?
When you nipple at her pimple-sized breasts
And marshalling your cargo into her narrow opening...
What do you whisper in her ears
When she cries of paisure
As thorns on your chest
eat into her tender flesh
yet to grow beautiful mounds
to nourish generations to come...
IV
Wele has given us women--
Saints, witches, devils and angels--
Many like sand, scattered all over Earth
Can't they quench your chronic thirst?
Why don't you nominate one to be a wife
or drag her to bed-- the bigheaded one
And hide behind fat notes later.
If you have a forked tongue
or suffer from ugliness;
Just straighten the cube of soil
Ancestors bequeathed you
As it has been since independence
Irrigating your ever dry throat
Women will after you run
Like misfortunes following a poor man!
Let the bull eat the cow
and the cock the hen!
Who, in our line, ever took
a cow to bed, starving a woman somewhere?
Who, in our line, ever took
a fellow man to bed, starving a woman somewhere?
How do they taste?
Oh, let women have their rights!
V
Some dogs invade your homestead
Bark, your bitches fuck, and shit
On your threshold.
Whilst inside you're mum-- fear's captive
What ate your manhood?
The owner of the homestead
Coughs, even a dry cough
To announce his presence
at all times
before God or Satan!
(c) wafula p'khisa
Once you were a man
Upon swallowing jeers, scorns and curses
To face the knife, sunrise to sunset
What ate your manhood then?
You have colonised drinking dens
Wherein like fish you drink
Lose way home and in ditches sleep
Whilst cold and hunger wrestle mulamwa down
Whilst children's heads swell with vices...
At daybreak you return
Once men have ploughed and sowed
Tattered, then snore off
Whilst cold and hunger weigh mulamwa down
Oh, bakoki, once you're a man
What ate your manhood?
Whereto did your stamina disappear?
That allure that most often
incited girls to lose way home
from the stream, posho mill or forest
To find themselves in your bed.
That allure that most often
incited girls to tear each other
for the feel of your magic wand!
II
You have become desert rain
Showing up not at men's joints...
What in the kitchen keeps you,
When cocks are out searching?
Why cook and wash
Whilst mulamwa idly sits
Duracoating her lips and nails?
Gossiping with women about others
Whilst into their skirts you peer
And they bend over you-- their breasts precariously dangling
Has ruined your manhood!
III
The ridges mourn virginity
Stolen from their unripe damsels.
But what pleasure lies
In eating a girl
who can't even wipe her buttocks clean
after defeacation?
What do you whisper in her ears
Too innocent to stomach adult wisdom;
But exciting childish nonsense?
When you nipple at her pimple-sized breasts
And marshalling your cargo into her narrow opening...
What do you whisper in her ears
When she cries of paisure
As thorns on your chest
eat into her tender flesh
yet to grow beautiful mounds
to nourish generations to come...
IV
Wele has given us women--
Saints, witches, devils and angels--
Many like sand, scattered all over Earth
Can't they quench your chronic thirst?
Why don't you nominate one to be a wife
or drag her to bed-- the bigheaded one
And hide behind fat notes later.
If you have a forked tongue
or suffer from ugliness;
Just straighten the cube of soil
Ancestors bequeathed you
As it has been since independence
Irrigating your ever dry throat
Women will after you run
Like misfortunes following a poor man!
Let the bull eat the cow
and the cock the hen!
Who, in our line, ever took
a cow to bed, starving a woman somewhere?
Who, in our line, ever took
a fellow man to bed, starving a woman somewhere?
How do they taste?
Oh, let women have their rights!
V
Some dogs invade your homestead
Bark, your bitches fuck, and shit
On your threshold.
Whilst inside you're mum-- fear's captive
What ate your manhood?
The owner of the homestead
Coughs, even a dry cough
To announce his presence
at all times
before God or Satan!
(c) wafula p'khisa
