The Playground
(2025)
‘This is why I love Kenya,’
the posters at the airport said.
With the Lion, the Zebra,
the dashing Mzungu a head
above the local colour.
Old Africa magazine promised
stories from East Africa’s past.
It was filled with exoticizing tales
of prolific shootings of life
and other sundry colonial remembrances.
White man’s playground then.
White man’s playground now.
‘Live Life Play Golf,’
exhorted the ad
for exclusive Vipingo living.
Today the Black man also wants to play.
Today everybody wants
luxury living.
Life in a playground
Led by cynical circus clowns
Don’t play and you’re shoved to the ground,
maimed so that you find your grin again.
Please someone ring the bell
for the end
of playtime.
___
Dedicated to the victims of street protests in Kenya.
Cover image: Fons Heijnsbroek, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons