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}