#jewellery
All this jewellery,
What for can it be?
Earrings you got at birth,
What are they worth?
They are with you
Always
Exchanging friendship bracelets,
The expectations it sets.
Best friends
Forever
Necklaces from family,
Might not know what you see.
They’re still there for you
Truly
Engagement and wedding rings,
More than beautiful things.
Boyfriends, girlfriends—lives entwine,
Becoming husbands, wives in time.
Jun 6, 2025
Jun 6, 2025 at 3:39 AM UTC
Whispers I sent out to dawn latched
on to the solitary sun to trail
the arc of a common time
in a sky the hue of gold in grass.
The land leans on the baobab
in a dust storm of wheels and lenses.
Wheels and lenses.
When the dust settles, I will dust
my shuka and the goats will return
home, to comfort my eyes that flow
the spate of the Great Ruaha,
seeping secretly into the baobab
I have chores to do, a shuka to ****
A shuka to ****
Will they buy the beads I strung
as I rocked Naeku on my back,
to make circles of day and circles
of night, as wide as the baobab,
in the colour of clouds, the colour of sky.
There's colour to stars in a darkened night.
A darkened night.
Killeleshua is fragrant in thousand leaves
Am I not worth more than thirteen Zebu?
The watering hole was flecked in hippos
and the firewood is the colour of dusk
abundantly generous as the baobab
Time, a viscous passing of the sweetest honey.
The sweetest honey.
Apr 22, 2021
Apr 22, 2021 at 11:35 AM UTC
I still remeber
that elegant curve,
On that beautiful frame.
I still remember,
How it made me feel.
shivers down the spine.
I still remember,
That elegant smile,
On that beautiful face.
May 27, 2020
May 27, 2020 at 11:46 AM UTC
I have dreams that I once was
A free majestic albino peacock,
Jewellery trapped under a rock.
I have dreams that I never was.
I have dreams that I once was
An old tree covered in snow,
Winds that took an eastern blow.
I have dreams that I never was.
I have dreams that I once was
A poor little drowning fish,
A silver ring left to tarnish.
I have dreams that I never was.
I have dreams that I once was
A lot of things and one thing,
But I never was anything.
I have dreams that I once was.
--Watercolour
Nov 13, 2016
Nov 13, 2016 at 5:41 PM UTC
You hung my heart
on your necklace of shame,
yet you wear it with pride.
Jun 12, 2015
Jun 12, 2015 at 1:39 PM UTC
In the same space where once laid rubies and pearls
now lies a tangled necklace of simple gold.
Knotted, tarnished and with one broken end,
it rests there for a long time, almost hidden,
amidst bracelets of diamonds
and waits to shine again.
May 16, 2015
May 16, 2015 at 2:54 PM UTC
This is my gift to you
words
a form so lacking in all
stability, security
that we chew them and spit them out
so they’re done
over
intangible.
You may throw them away from the
back of your throat
to the tip of your tongue
in one wave
one simple wave of movement and then we can all forget
the silly things I’ve said
admitted
denied
and will not be caught out by
sources that say otherwise.
This is my gift to you:
One free ticket to forget me
what a prize
to be hypnotized
People pay a lot for that ****
You see, when I make awkward eye contact
with my morning mirror
and delve into my makeup bag
for assistance in eye liner
my fingers always find that pit
and slip into a ring that’s been tossed to the bottom
rings entwined with rings entwined with poor judgement.
They sit and wait in their scuffed coats,
like waiting for a bus
waiting to remind me
remember that time?
This is my gift to you.
A present that says
‘I am not permanent’
because believe me, I’m not.
But if I have to wake up to
break ups bound in highly unreactive gold
then at least let me free you of these chains too.
It’s just such a shame that they suit you.
Jun 26, 2014
Jun 26, 2014 at 9:24 PM UTC