5.African Woman

She sings as she cooks your food
And smiles when she serves
Do you see her as a wafer-
Pale and sparsely sweetened
Or like a good bar of dairy milk?
Rich to sink teeth into?

Is it her mouth?
When she says she’s sorry; and calls you baby?
Is it her submissive stance?
When you visit friends?
Is her beauty in her expressive gestures?
When she explains a scenery?
Which you don’t understand?

Beautiful, a part of you inside her grows
Amazing, when you begin to look alike

Or is it because she always comes home,
And washes her hair and body with lux,
And wears that silk slip you bought her
Is it because she can color her hair red?
Or because hr skin conceals ecstasy,
Absorbing light, shinning, not reflecting.

Her long skirts give your imagination the reigns
Is it the way she neatly wriggles and fits into your arms?
Or the warm breath in your neck?
Or way she finds your hands and warms them in her waist?

Is beauty only visual?
Is it in laughter?
‘Substance,’ you say and whisper
I’m no pervert, but I just like from waist downwards.’
Stretch marks? What are stretch marks?

Does beauty ooze?
Is it hidden?
Can it be touched?
Are curves divine, do hips intoxicate?

Why do you turn when she walks past?
Why do you love her.

Is it the eyes that shine,
The lashes that flatter,
Or the moist lips.

{Sublime Innocence, the poems. Cecilia Gathoni}

love, art and relativity

Now, ignore my pale views
Teach yourself to feel, to see, to touch
If dirt is beauty to you, then let it be
Don’t be constricted to this sole view
After all, I love my way
You love your way
And most things are relative.

Look at t he setting sun once again
I simply can’t teach you art
Coz art, is the beginning of life
As with light and flowers
Reflections of beauty
Reflections and interpretations of beauty

See the dew, watch the rain strokes rush
Diagonally like fleeting romantism
Learn art, learn beauty
As with patient contemplations
Sight and feelings exude love
That’s when you begin to love

My mind is stunned and crowded
Your actions disagree with
The constant pleading in my mind-your heart of stone and eyes of glass
Have got no depth and I’m weeping
I’ve lost my past, my future is uncertain.

So, will you let me explain my view, partner,
See, with our heart we are free but our minds keep pulling us apart.
Why with shadows of old past and mismatched tunes do you let this go on,
While it was decided we would let it go?

We held hands
We held hands and touched heads.You,
Uttered words you shouldn’t have now,
These words will haunt us
The constant ringing in my mind
Of words you said, but denied by actions
Your forgetting mind.
Is like a rock with no feeling, your, sacred heart denies me the sweet scent of rough old loving.
Your new ways
You, have learnt new ways to torture me,
You, forever will be inventing rules and standards
I, cannot help feeling that maybe,
That some how,
We’ve lost it

So why do you gaze at me so,
See, this life we lead directs our steps
If I should give the wrong sign,
Please reconfirm?

Your heart is a rock,as I said your body is an ice block, your actions are a big, intimidating boulder
Unless you learn to live, to love, to be,
Partner, you’ll turn into one of those.

Friend

I’ve seen the way you talk to me these days
I’ve seen how fast your eyes shift
And how quick your hand slips out of mine-
I’ve seen, how you’ll only ‘do your part’,
It’s not like before when, we chatted and you, playfully flickered my collar
I’ve seen how, you have him at hand every time you come around ,
That only formalities may be exchanged
I’ve seen, the way your glance doesn’t go past my forehead—have I done wrong?
Need I know?
I’ve seen, the way you no longer appreciate my poor man’s gift,
I’ve seen, I’m no longer crucial
I’ve seen, you no longer acknowledge even, my presence
I’ve seen, friend, something went wrong.