Arise and shine my precious daughter
Arise and shine brighter and brighter
Like the sun is shining in Africa
Arise and shine my beloved Nkiruka.

No matter how louder the claps of the thunder
No matter how darker the clouds of the stormy weather
Be brave my precious daughter
Don’t faint in fear and don’t surrender
Even if you miss your footsteps in the slippery *****
Don’t ever give up and don’t lose hope.

My precious daughter always remember
That come rain or shine, your future is greater
So, arise and shine my precious daughter
Nkiruka! Nkiruka!! Nkiruka!!!

(when I forget to take my pills)
everything round becomes a gunshot, a bullet

your freckles fall off
one by one
and shoot down the road towards me ( as fast as bullets go
still I never can catch them)
I can never paste your freckles to my face

of everything I want to put my mouth on,
kiss, then never touch again

pillows shrink to the size of gumdrops ( I will never
sleep again)
and I swallow them, cushion my heart

say it is okay
baby baby soul baby arteries
everyone hurts when the pupils still have to grow
it takes time to snow, to become

quiet.

Before the night paints the world dark
Daylight surrenders to the evening and fades
A carpenter digs through the dead tree’s bark
Before nightfall a hole has to be made.
A hole has to be made before nightfall
There isn’t any place else he could stay
Since he can’t make the night stall
He must fast dig the passageway.
He must fast dig the passageway
Make for him a warm space
Till the sun gifts him another day
He once more gets back his happiness.
He once more gets back his happiness
The thought drives him in the cold night
It’s enough if he can just dig a warm space
To hold on patiently for daylight.
He must hold on patiently for daylight
A rewarding time until dawns darkness
A warm space he must dig for the night
Therein lies the woodpecker’s happiness.

as the tide ebbed
a fringe of foam
stayed ashore