They said it was a category five
Thank god its roar
Turn into a category four
Laying waste to many a life
Wiping away the property
The Caribbean’s sign of liberty
From the mishap of Grenada in 1983
10 dead
They can still look ahead
But the thoughts keep going to Florida
But didn’t think Trump kept you in his thoughts did ya
Took you a while to get the evacuation through
As the political tensions grew
And Trump declared it as not good not good
The closest you can come to trifling is by saying that Irma isn’t the result of a good mood
But enough chitter chatter because there is an SOS on the rise
In such a situation climate deniers consider climate change to be the reason as their surmise
Rush Limbaugh cannot see the truth
Because his face is buried deep in the smoke that will pollute
Hurricane Irma I pray the woman in your name understands and leaves the children alone
Because there are no sins to atone for if they are orphaned and dead alone
They’ll be on the prowl for food and money and liquor and ending up appraising the days that are sunny
But funnily anyway they are because you business ******* have increased your influx of money from the disaster stricken many
Water, air trips you’ve been taking business studies from **** Cheney

As I go through Kali Yuga
I'll become a Cali Buddha
Breathing, mindful
I remove my blindfold

Choosing full awareness
Seeing only fairness
Serving up some dharma
I don't eat that shawarma

Life in this Golden State
Bliss is my karmic fate
Shiva
Shakti
Seva is my bhakti
Sitting in samādhi
Blast out of my body

We eat shawarma and we share da pizza
afterwards partying, never alone on dat gig
meet a *** just to bang her wit my homez
me salutin' to carlos, yep, it's like dat:

he be spending some time behind bars now
ain't no biggie, we rely on da boyz
neva had nuttin' but now we ******' top-modelz
as maxwell argued: "open your mouth, i'm gonna ***"

watch, how we double our profitz...
da hottest gang under da sun
once bonez said:" man, we be stars quite soon!"
and each memba represented his part

he told me: "sit down and write barz"
cause dem gangsterrappaz mostly be phony
we no lelleks, i got men behind me
187 street gang, sampler number four

Bombarded,
Rubbled,
About to die.
I, Ahmed and my friends yet dream,
To eat a shawarma,
A chicken sandwich,
Not to have the roads closed,
Waiting for a brother,
To hear his mother calling him,
Hopefully to see another morning.
5/11/2023

she lights her favorite candle and then pulls her cigarette from her lips and lights it from the candle

she goes to the kitchen and starts cutting the fresh mango and sees some blueberries and grabs a handful throws them in her mouth and chews

she is always talking and sometimes when I talk she talks over me to talk for me

after the fruit and how I wonder what it tasted like mixed with cigarette smoke she kissed her lips to me and says let’s go for a walk

we go out with the growing back trees beside us and no cold wind

she isn’t talking

she is looking                  

she wants to go to the gym and I tell her for the hundredth time I don’t do the gym  

observing the life of nature

there is peace in the wombs of the road

as always she is hungry and we go buy

a chicken shawarma

outside with her smile and we see Bobby the hunk

with his Wanda who looks like a lion


she wants the park and I want a bed

I want her

with awful love blooming

I can’t find her love

Arising this morning feeling low in mood and motivation from my daily exposure to a culture counter to the one we were created to live in, and from my daily life and experiences with persons who contribute to the culture as it is, I did not want to do anything. I only wanted to be comforted. I just wanted to feel comfortable.

Additionally feeling very cold from the frigid winds and trees blowing intensely and harshly outside a few glass windows I could see out of, simultaneously feeling strange from a time change by one hour, a time change having a hard to describe effect on me, I did not want to do anything. I only wanted to be comforted. I just wanted to feel comfortable.

Sitting with my feet propped up for an hour or more, I sip hot herbal tea to simply be, warm my body, and nurture my feelings.

In the evening feeling hungry as I ran a few errands in the city, I stop by a restaurant that serves Arabic food. Having made barley earlier and wanting to finish it, I order chicken shawarma to pair with it. While eating my meal, a group of three enter, two men and a woman. They take seats at a table next to mine.

Enjoying the meals we were served until completion, one of the men escapes from the table and proceeds to the front counter. He orders and says to the waitor, zum Mitnehmen. A few minutes later he comes to where I'm sitting at the table and he hands me a bag with two sandwiches inside and says, This is falafel to take with you. I smile happily. What a surprise! I say to him. Thank you very much for your kindness.

He will never know how much he helped me.

here we are, in this diner
beer and a watered down cuppa
i wonder if it's always gonna be
like this for us
shoving sugar packets in my pocket
leaving table with no tips
and a sahara of spilled sweetener
- it has our ways on it -
i wonder if norm is normal anymore
when dolce vita
dolce far niente
and it's abnormal doldrums
go out the window
like goes a roach
or a gum
no end to ur tainted fury
in this freeway kingdom
any dreadful shawarma joint is stuck with
our initials tagged on the loo door of it
while these children of fortune
from the supermarket lot - they are bored
dancing moves undanced before, by any
i wonder why here& now
                  why in bronze
                  why us
      why in some little random church
goose gone stripping
for the bad luck of ours

In olden days there lived a wife
Whose noble husband courted strife
He loved her little - just at night -
This knightly treatment wasn’t right.

He found her in the woodland wild
And took her for a wayward child
Making her his own for pity’s sake
While long regretting his mistake

Belittling her at every chance
Their love was lacking in romance
And when they came to Arthur’s court
He served her up in rags for sport.

But Queen Guinevere took pity
And dressed her in her finery
At which the husband fell for her
And took his way without deter.

At last grown slothful in his lust
He betrayed his knightly trust
And the lads of the Round Table
Questioned whether he was able

To sally forth on jousts or quests
Or polish up his chainmail vests -
And what is more said they made good
On any wants of knightlyhood.

At which he rode away with umbrage
Treating her as wayward baggage
Although he took her nonetheless
To keep the score on his contests.

He ordered her to ride ahead
And keep her tongue inside her head:
While he sought out each noble fight
She found a camp and cooked at night

With trolls and bandits on the way
She saw them first but could not say:
Distracting them she made them blink
And looking back gave knight-ward wink

But when the champion won the day
He sent her forward down the way
Driving chargers decked with *****
No words of thanks in line of duty.

Til in the forest depths a maiden cried
Beset by fire and to some ******* tied
A morsel for a dragon roast or fried
The fiery beasties’ shawarma undenied.

Then Enid much beguiled the monstrous worm
And calmed its embers with her nubile form -
While Geraint freed the nymphet from the stake
She shared her story with the horned snake.

At length she found her knight had upped and left
Leaving her beset, bamboozled and bereft
But then the dragon taken by her grief
Gave her the gold that stuck between its teeth.

So, she took the stolen armour that she held
And girded up with lance and sword in belt
Giving eager chase to nymph and errant knight
To teach him his behaviour wasn’t right.

She came upon her hubby in a glen
Enticing Elyse to a bowered den
He had fancied her since way back when -
He cut her bonds but tied them back again.

Then much in wrath our mounted maiden rode
Resplendent in her anger, brave and bold
And brought to joust Geraint the Oversold
But he took flight and fled the combat cold.

And Elyse was overcome with gratitude
For this gentlest of stranger’s hastilude
That he should save her from calamity
And never once assail her chastity.

‘Young Sir, my love is yours as you desire
I am a princess and my lands are yours
Come live with me and be my noble squire
And I will grant you what you may require’.

At which the champion laid her helm aside
And tossed the curls she could no longer hide:
‘I am no knight young beauteous maid
But just a woman that misfortune made’.

When Elyse saw such woe and courtly care
She loved the girl who stood so sadly there:
‘It matters not my lover and my life
You are my choice and I your loving wife’.

And then at last they came to rest at Camelot
Where Queen Guinevere reserved them a spot
At her table (which was like Arts’ non-square),
Where all were welcome to partake and share.

And they grew old in honour and renown
With songs of courtly love that still resound
For they had found their holy loving grail -
That gentlest of knights and her beloved girl.

And last was heard of Enid’s ex-Geraint
He was the fearsome dragon’s catamite -
And labour as he might to stir its blood
The slightest recognition was withstood.

Our cousin's are our first best friends,
Blood leave's little room for pretense,
We fight with no compromise until the fittest has their way,
in a patriarchal place sometimes the girls sit or work and watch the boys play,
These are the types of things my big brother would challenge about society,
What was the best way for us to coexist?
How could we ensure that we could all flourish?
Male, female, sexist, racist, brown, pale, Christian or atheist.

Anyone who really knew Musenge knows he didn't shy away from controversy,
He knew that change cannot come from conformity,
Though we didn't always agree,
I saw him as mind that was free.

I was so glad when i heard he was pursuing journalism,
Like when we were kids i thought he was stepping in to his rhythm,
We would dance to Michael Jackson at family gatherings,
Without a care for whether we were actually happening,
It was the two of us against the world for that moment.
Those are my fondest memories.

Then he went to the UK and we became slightly estranged,
The next time I saw him,
his jawline had changed,
His voice had a buzz,
but his eyes were the same,
The eyes never change,
but the face tales a tale,
of struggle and pain,
fear and rejection,
but also of joy and of hope,
love and acceptance,
I was curious to know how his journey had been since we last met.

He was still like my best friend and we picked up like he never left,
He really enjoyed Marvel movies so we'd go to the cinema whenever we could,
recently we'd grab a shawarma and a beverage from the local neighbourhood when I'd come home for the holiday.
He was a fan of a good story.
He looked at life as one and he often questioned his own and our own.

One thing I'll always remember was Musenge's cry for unity.

He felt that there was a drop in love in the family and not just the Kasese's but Africa.
Having lived in three different continents his mind became global and he no longer saw Jew or Greek, slave or free. As much as he sometimes had doubts about God as we all do he was getting closer to the heart of Jesus more than he probably knew.

So what then must we do to honour the life of our friend, brother, son and nephew?
I believe we must try to love like he loved,
He had the best wishes for each of us,
St. Thomas Aquinas said To love is to will the good of the other,
Though sometimes misunderstood,
Musenge's intentions were good.

May we tell each other how much we love each other more often and may we show it too.
May we give big open hugs as he would.
Make this journey a little less lonely and cold,
May we have discussions and not arguments and listen to each others views.
May we be curious to challenge the status quo and ask how we can improve,
May we heal the world and make it a better place,
That's what Musenge was trying to do.

May we not be crushed by the pain and grief.
May the spirit of God comfort our hearts and may we be grateful that we got to experience the wonderful enignma that was Musenge Geoffrey Chibwa.

We will miss you my friend,
Your story had too soon an end,
May mercy make us meet again.
Lord graciously hear us.