Friday, 24 February 2012

Laana yangu




Wadhani wanitambua
Hauning’amui hata

Waamini tabasamu hafifu ichezayo mdomoni
Huoni gubi la simanzi ilyofunikwa

Wahusudu mavazi yangu yanayonisitiri
Huoni vidonda vilivyofichwa ndani

Ukiona marafiki zangu wanavyojibeba kana kwamba dunia ni uridhi waliyopewa
Wadhani maisha yangu ni bahali shwari

Uonacho ni ngozi inayong’aa kwa kulishwa mafuta ya mikato
Hauelewi ati ngozi huo umodhoofika ndani

Mkwanja wangu ndio wewe waona
Hauelewi ukware wangu haukunipa hela tu- sonene pia niliongezewa

Hauamini rijali wa miraba minnne na umbo tisti kaanguswa na nyondenyonde
Ugonjwa huu haubagui

Waganguzi na waganga wameongea
Ugonjwa huu hausikii

Usihusudu maisha yangu
Tangu lini mzima akatamani uredi?

Mzee Varaq
My poems

Monday, 13 February 2012

my beef with the brain


Sometimes the human brain decides to throw certain pranks at us in a bid to show who‘s the boss. It is the highest degree of betrayal when your short term memory goes haywire. I have recently noticed that I have one of the most selective memories among the descendants of Adam. By selective let me make it clear that I don’t mean retarded or defective- I mean that it just chooses what it wants to store based on some system that it’s yet to let me in on despite my best attempts to crack the codes. There are certain times it decides to temporarily hide certain files especially when I need them only to return them into the database when the need has been completely overtaken by events.
There is this incidence the other day that left me in fits of rage. I know this sounds weird coz how does one get mad at the brain? It’s like getting mad at the eyes or the legs. But believe me when I say I have never been madder my entire life. Oooh and that include when my primary school head teacher asked me to consume a whole sufuria of nyoyo after being caught doubling. If you don’t know what doubling is then I guess my reputation can still be salvaged.
Just the other day spent about thirty minutes trying to locate my phone. I looked in every crook and nook-don’t ask me what they mean. All I heard from Mummy’s (My High school English teacher) long explanation is that they should be used in the same sentence with look. After turning beds upside down and checking under the bed a brilliantly idea hit me-why don’t I just flash it! So I took my phone to call my phone and it’s only then that I realized that whatever I had been sweating about had been in my hands all this while! And that is not all, by the time I got the phone I couldn’t even remember what is it that that I wanted to do with the gadget.
Have you ever started to update your facebook status and you suddenly realize that you have just forgotten what it is that you wanted to post?  Well if you have, take consolation that you are not alone. It simply means that you have far important components permanently occupying their brain cells such that the fringe knowledge has to compete for space among each other for the paltry 1% of the brain still available.
Maybe I should walk around with pen and paper to record everything significant or just take solace in the fact ‘if you forgot it then it’s probably not that important”. Better yet, I should forget that am forgetting and be happy with the facts that I can remember. Maybe mzee Varaq is just getting old!



Wednesday, 8 February 2012

Am I just paranoid?




You have grown cold and distant
Smiles today are like a necessary ritual
Texts infrequent like tsunamis
Or am just paranoid?

In my company your phone is ever off
It tags along even to the conveniences
A strong password barrier erected to keep off intruders when it’s left
Or am just paranoid?

You are gay all the time; no rough days at the office it seems
Your matrimonial house has grown deadening
Getting out of the enclosure is all you purpose
Or am I just paranoid?

The mirror is your new screen of choice
Your grooming increasingly pompous
New fragrances complement your exotic fibres
Or am I just paranoid?

Should I ask her?
Why? So that she can lie to my face?
So that she can manipulate and toy around with my intoxicated mind?
Why? So that she can confirm my paranoia?

No! I shan’t give you that privilege
The writing is on the wall
I shan’t overstay my welcome
I’ll just walk away with my paranoia

Robert Varaq
(My poems)