in your way stands
a city
a city whose sadness follows
its gradient faithfully
like you do
constricted in gutters
and sewers like shallow graves
nesting sour potential, acting
as distributors of finality
what left the ocean in vapour
is not what returned to it
filtered through days, cities
and highways towards a dip
always a dip that pulls and pulls
water no get enemy 1
but there are faults for which
she can hold a species in contempt like:
planting a concrete bridge
or eucalyptus trees in her way
or making quarries of her banks
where you join athi river
your mouth is crippled
by invasive water hyacinth
the way you drop and rise
through mathare valley
and dandora falls then meander through
through njiru, ruai, and the eastern
:bypass on a map, looks like:
finding your own way
running away
on their way to mars,
while racing meteoroids across stardust,
the species will:
drain you
in the name of resource
abandon you
for a what if
someone let the darkness
of the city named after you
grey your waters like:
a colour additive
proof, the earth was born mute
- water no get enemy is the recurring punchline by Fela Kuti on his similarly tilted track, Water No Get Enemy, 1975.[↩]