The Ruined House of Somalia

It was a long fretful watch

Stretching years of secrets divulged
Ifs and whys splashed everywhere.

Even as I screeched a mark

On the mired pages
Scarred faces my pen evaded
Speechless,
An Angel shook its head,upset.

History stalled.

In the weeping arms of her mother

A baby girl rocked herself to slumber.

A disheveled kid rushed on the road,

A rusty AK-47 his only consort.

A door slammed shut, crestfallen,

The ruined house of Somalia,
Powerless to contain the hurt therein.

A widow gave birth

And increased a populace wounded.

The sea was overwhelmed by the salt it held

And took its anger on the wavering seized.

Doomsday is an arduous day,

A foretaste replayed in the African Horn
Even as Angelic discourses went by, unheeded
And the moaners dilly-dallied, sidelined.

It was a long fretful watch

Ifs and whys abounded
Unrequited questions weighed down our mother
Hellish burdens indiscrete
Hovered on shoulders too narrow for the hold.

Somewhere in the firmament

A higher being flapped bejeweled wings
Sun rose yet again to renew her calls

But the earth-bound as usual on the prey feasted.

 Greed-locked they sullied the continent’s spoils.

Grow up, Africa! Your desperation’s flowered by your own meanness,

Own up!

Burnt stars shake off their ashes,

Own up, Africa!

It was a long ludicrous wait

Tongue-tied the pens quivering in the folds, wailed.
In this drapery of the world’s most tedious narration
Even the accursed devil his face buried.

My pen drowned in the sweat of my hesitation

Expecting clouds withheld their goods, a scenario
replaying my own vacillation.

It was time Sun bid adieu

And the day’s cares coated with dew.

I rest my case by the setting sun

And like a disgruntled branch
I can only my dissatisfaction share
With the reclining ground.

Ultimately,
A conductor of my spirit alone,
The melodies of nature alone in my ears a balm
Sight unwavering on the farthest horizon
This last Spark being what held my reason.

But then again,

When there’s none else but Him…
Isn’t the cry: Ya Allah!