I saw my father make love to my mother.

The sound of quarrel

About the neighbors money had died down
And I thought it was the right time to pick toothpaste
From my parents bedroom where it was kept.

The door had been shut carelessly,

Leaving enough space for one and a half eyes.
My father told her
That he wanted to do with her
What he had bought her for.
Ma was shaking,
I almost told dad,
To take Ma to hospital,
Surely she must have malaria.

Ma started to beg,
She said words woven with tears
Such that they were difficult to comprehend,
Father listened,
Disgust making him cross.
He rolled his hands into a fist
Mother saw them and she stopped.

Mother lay down neatly, fathers pants collapsed

Like a tired wall,

He held both bed poles
And thrust like he had been possessed by the spirits
Of his ancestors
That had been starved for way too long!

My father thrust
My father thrust.

My father didnt thrust to make love,

No!
He didnt kiss Ma
And run his hands through her hair
Like in the movies,
My father thrust to wage a war
My father thrust because he had a penis and she didnt
My father thrust because he wanted to show that he was the man
And she was nothing but what he chose to have her be,
For f it was about equality women would produce semen.
My father thrust because giving a beating wasnt nearly as pleasurable,
My father thrust because thats how he dealt with his prostitutes
(Only less vicious)
My father thrust because his father told him to thrust.
My father thrust to hear Ma cry,
Ma didnt cry
And my father thrust

My father thrust
My father thrust

Ma gasped
And cried and gasped and begged.
Like other times she lost this war again.

I ran away,
my eyes burning.

Later,
Father called me.
He smiled as he said
Sit, I am going to teach you how to be a man.