http://www.marykimani.com A collection of poetry and reflections by African Writer Mary Kimani Mon, 23 Jul 2007 21:18:17 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en   Cease assisting, let me die in peace.   Don’t you know? in some cases, death is preferable to life, preferable to pain preferable to anguish preferable to hope.   Hope is like an open sore open and vulnerable to the elements. each additional injury making it sore and sensitive.   And in the midst of this unceasing rain, Drenching us cold, Soaking our mud walled rooms, Trickling ... http://www.marykimani.com/?p=41 Refugee camp   I imagined many things… But not this- Not misery raining from the sky not homes long overgrown not miles of farmland abandoned un-harvested produce- rotting not acres of humanity acres of miserable pitiful humanity soaking in the rain. http://www.marykimani.com/?p=40   Atrophy  In the mulch around the budding trees, insects crawl about. Snakes, salamanders and frogs slithering and jumping about everywhere.  The waters are dirty. There are no fish in the sea. We live small dirty lives, damp,miserable,cold lives, full of crawling things that slitter in the underbrush.  The nights are getting longer and darker the ... http://www.marykimani.com/?p=39 Grey clouds glide by darkly tonight, a dark ominous moon shines from on high, its cream and reddish rays fall to the ground, disturbing our peace. This night will not so easily pass. It will be a long and endless night, in yours and my mind. The air around us heaves with wrongness, someone’s insane laugher resounds through ... http://www.marykimani.com/?p=38   The dam explodes.   Agonised, I reach out, Grab a pen.   Instead of the tears that do not fall, And the longings that are unspoken Words explode on the pages, Pain turning to poetry.   Line after line, A cry, A howl, In place of the sound that fails to come out of my mouth.   The poems sigh and cry on my behalf- They weep, shout, and ... http://www.marykimani.com/?p=34 The thought pummels through my mind, Unidentified, Yet, Heavy- Oppressive- As I face the tomorrow of my life. One impinged upon by the grasping unyielding tentacles- of our yesterday.   And yet I have, With such audacity, Set forth to declare Once and for all, That this time I shall not be cowed.   I will not move back, I will not retrace my ... http://www.marykimani.com/?p=33 Knowing you, Is the privilege of my life. Loving you Is a bittersweet experience Knowing you can never be mine Caring all the same Knowing you may never understand But being happy anyway. Knowing that one day It may fade into your dust of old memories And willing it not to be so And yet knowing That that is ... http://www.marykimani.com/?p=32 Dear Mother, Today, I stand at the edge of life, Peering over the cliff, Sure now That I could never jump, Wondering why I ever thought I could. I stand, Aware that I have lived beyond my time Known secrets reserved for old women Tasted sorrows reserved for the matured and tempered. But somehow, though always standing right ... http://www.marykimani.com/?p=31 The stairwell goes nowhere. It cascades endlessly into emptiness— Hopes lie dashed somewhere at the end of this infinity. The flowers bloom, but there is no scent. Bees do not come here. The apparent look of life hides the death that encroaches day after day. There is a weeping sound in the wind: you won’t hear it, but I do. It ... http://www.marykimani.com/?p=28 The cows don’t moo as often as they did before, And even when they do I cannot hear them above the din Of my lonely heart.   The sun don’t shine so bright no more And even if it does, I cannot see it for the blinding pain Of my lonely heart.   Nature seems to pair everyone From ... http://www.marykimani.com/?p=27