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Queen Africa: A Poem in Two Parts
By Betty Wamalwa Muragori
I
You want to know who she is?
She is Queen Africa!
A fountain, outpouring with love,
A torrent of endless friendship and joy
Wise words breathe on the tip of her eloquent tongue,
Knowing just what to say to soothe wavering feelings,
She councils a turning away from the brink
The one to trust with a hero in peril,
From her she’ll hear what she needs to stand tall
Hail the queen!
She is mama to sinners and winners alike,
Seeing champions emerging veiled deep from our sight
The unsung first love of Nelson Mandela
It was she who wiped tears from our yet-to-be hero
And bade him be strong for the love of all man
To go one step more when ravaged with fear,
Stand up to bullies wielding jamboks and guns,
Seizing conquest unseen in jaws of defeat!
A noble queen!
Leading assemblies with compassion and wit
Once dedicated solely to raising Wangari Mathaai,
She stays us from folly of careless harsh pride
With gracious delight she dispenses her healing
Directing her daughters to liberty’s prize,
To breathe life into bones grown weary from kneeling
Queen Africa has broken her silence,
She is yielding no more!
II Queen of the World
Hmm, you call me queen of Africa?
No!
Correction!
I am queen of the world!
Does my bold speaking leave you somewhat surprised?
Good, I’m glad for your shock!
Get ready for more,
I am giving you notice,
Enough has been said!
Centuries listening to those words from your mouth,
Making claims on my silence as if I were dull!
I am tired of odes, extolling one virtue,
Making me out to be only Mandela’s poor mama
I’m drained of being seen as a good little thing, so
true, so pure, so long suffering,
Oh please!
You leave me bristling with your language of pain,
Your surprising poor wit and repeating expressions
Long years have I waited for unveiled gaze?
To grasp the breadth of my virtuoso eye,
To spot the swish in my eager round hips,
And count the fruit of my inquisitive mind
Instead you stole my acclaim!
I will do it myself, speak up and be heard!
I am African queen, queen of the world,
Watch me sashay down catwalks, seducing the crowds,
See me merciless siren in the arms of your man
Remember Queen Sheba that stole foreign kings?
That was I!
I have shaped grand inventions from wind, sun and rain,
Invoked lullabies rocking babies to sleep
My long neck grew graceful from balancing time
My back strong and firm nursing tendrils on rock
What can I not do?
Now sparkling diamond communing with God
An act of conception, cherished adored!
An eagle am I, soaring on high
The wide universe is mine
Hear me roar with enjoyment a full throated noise,
Rapturous pleasure bouncing unbound!
I command you!
Stop mealy mouth words of constant distress,
Desist, from disfiguring quiet malaise!
My visage is empress, noble and proud,
Befitting a sovereign of the whole firmament
Rise up, stand free, grant me your hand,
All hail Queen Africa,
Queen of the world!
* * *
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BRASS LOVE
By Betty Wamalwa Muragori
Words of love coiled from your lips,
Gleaming like burnished brass,
And I swallowed them whole.
Your words filled my mouth,
And popped open,
Out flowed the sweet nectar of a thousand desert blooms!
Your love words held me close,
Lighting me with incandescence
I was gloaming, lost in the hour before waking
I danced to the rhythm of your song!
Sweet and beguiling,
Your careful love words left me aching.
I savored your words of love and held them long in my
mouth
Too soon they left me craven with tears of sorrow
Shadows fell when you walked away
Grown tired by my heedless hunger
Alone and lost
Your words turned acrid smoke.
* * *
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Chameleon Stretch
(Inspired by Edith Mbigi)
By Betty Wamalwa Muragori
She stretched, a chameleon reaching for the next branch.
Seduction on his mind,
He watched, a veil of half-closed eyes.
Alone, she smoothed kinks out of her lean lithe form.
Delectable, she left him sitting up,
He lost his breath!
A smiling secret played on her fulsome whole lips.
Captured, by her pleasure,
Her thoughts formed before him.
Interrupted, she uncovered him staring open mouthed,
mesmerized.
Brazen, he put his thoughts away,
And screened his unseemly longing.
* * * *
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