Expelled by Jared Angira

We had traded in the market competitively perfect
till you came in the boat, and polished goodwill
approval from high order
all pepper differentials, denied flag-bearers

and cut our ribs, dried our cows
the vaccine from the lake
burst the cowshed, the drought you brought
planted on the market place, the tree of memory

I had no safe locket to keep my records
when Sodom burnt and Gomorrah fell
the debtor’s records blared
the creditors tapped my rusty door

My tears flowed to flooded streams
and source the rivulets from my human lake
from my veins, my heart my whole
disposition of the last penny
the last sight of my fishing-net

Everyone avoids my path; I avoid death’s too
pursuit in a dark circus
the floating garden in a gale
plants reject sea water, the sea water rejects me

I have nothing to reject
the broken lines run across my face
The auctioneer will gong his hammer
for the good left behind

Jared Angira

Jared Angira is a Kenyan poet who was born on 21st November, 1947. Because of the significance ofhis works to the recognition of Kenyan poetry, he is seen as Kenya's first truly significant poet.

No Coffin No Grave by Jared Angira

He was buried without a coffin
without a grave
the scavengers performed the post-mortem
in the open mortuary
without sterilized knives
in front of the night club

stuttering rifles put up
the gun salute of the day
that was a state burial anyway the car knelt
the red plate wept, wrapped itself in blood its master’s

the diary revealed to the sea
the rain anchored there at last
isn’t our flag red, black, and white?
so he wrapped himself well

who could signal yellow
when we had to leave politics to the experts
and brood on books
brood on hunger
and schoolgirls
grumble under the black pot
sleep under torn mosquito net
and let lice lick our intestines
the lord of the bar, money speaks madam
woman magnet, money speaks madam
we only cover the stinking darkness
of the cave of our mouths
and ask our father who is in hell to judge him
the quick and the good

Well, his dairy, submarine of the Third World War showed he wished
to be buried in a gold-laden coffin
like a VIP
under the jacaranda tree beside his palace
a shelter for his grave
and much beer for the funeral party

anyway one noisy pupil suggested we bring
tractors and plough the land.

...JARED ANGIRA

Jared Angira is a Kenyan poet who was born on 21st November, 1947. Because of the significance of his works to the recognition of Kenyan poetry, he is seen as Kenya's first truly significant poet.