Friday, August 07, 2009

Is it Ebony, Mahogany or Maji ya Kunde?


your quiet african beauty

is it




ebony,




mahogany

or maji ya kunde
your complexion i mean

your under-stated kenyan beauty
stares back at us
from a tasteful snapshot

makes me wonder
why you did not
pursue those
modeling auditions
your online one liners

mystify people
who do not know you

fascinates those of us who do

in a demi-monde of virtual flirters
one needs to log out
to get the real deal

one needs to go offline
to get in line

is this a poetic overture

is this a digital seduction note

is this a cyber pick up line

is this a literary adventure

facebook will never trump face time

facebook will never equal face to face
remember the sumptuous java house dinner

recall the carousing
with pilsners and black label

in an upstairs tavern
off the jeevanjee gardens


i admire your feisty, almost fierce independence
the way you have
eschewed your famous surname

and evaded the shadow
of your tall siblings

you wanna be you
for who you are

not for who you share bloodlines with


as i end let me say this

one day i hope to read
these lines of verse

with you listening

with your ironic quizzical gaze
across the coffee table

oriti masani
dwasi madichol,
ewe kiumbe mrembo
maji ya kunde


Onyango Oloo, August 7, 2009