My father,

After

enjoying many a bottle of Tusker
enjoyed waking us
in the middle of the night
with loud, thinly-veiled threats
of disownment
while
with authority proclaiming
that we, his girls
were not worthy to carry his father’s name
and instead, belonged solely to our mother

But before

my pre-teenage self
could courageously attempt
at a retort,

 

Would say, again and again,

“You will come back to me, all of you -

crawling“

 

15 years have come and gone
I am yet
to go down on my knees.

 

©Nkirote 2010