Written By Stephen D. Partington
Imagine that this sonnet is a flag,
A pole along its straight left edge, the wind
Creating chaos through its fabric, wind
From countless ethnic homelands. Never flat,
And never calm like Peace, the flag is torn.
These rips become the fences marking plots,
The rows of fences that divide our land.
Our green is scored and shredded: on one hand
Whole Highlands for the rich, while others squat.
Is such partition Unity and Peace?
So this is what we we’ve stooped to: steeped in blood,
We fight between ourselves, and fail to see
Our enemy is inequality:
It’s wealth, not tribe, that threatens brotherhood.
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About Storymoja Africa
Knowledge is the most powerful engine for economic growth worldwide. To accelerate development in our beloved country, we have to nurture a reading culture that goes beyond academics and politics. Growing Kenya ’s reading culture is Storymoja’s mission as it feeds our business), our personal call as writers, and our patriotic duty.
Storymoja is a venture recently formed by a collective of five writers who are committed to publishing contemporary East African writing of world-class standard. We source widely to identify good local writers, help them edit their submissions to exacting standards, and develop eye-catching book-covers.
never calm like peace, the flag is torn… even with the imposing shield emblazoned on the flag, the symbol of our nationhood, we fail to defend. the halves and the halve-nots persist in their famed conflict. The poem captures alot about our turbulent life.
Posted by mesopirr | March 3, 2011, 5:18 pmOur problem is not politics
But poor distribution of resources
That suppresses our economics
Our problem was never tribe
But the politocal demagogues
To whom we ascribe!
Posted by Simon Njoroge | March 4, 2011, 10:04 amWell captured. The heroes of independence must be turning in their graves as they watch brother and brother and sister and sister and father and son and mother and daughter tear each other apart, driven by the unseen force – greed. I agree with the writer. The present-day nation could not be captured in more revealing style. Good caption.
Posted by Brian | March 5, 2011, 11:09 am