Poets’ corner: JUMA-PHOPIA

 

Discipline and hard work extolled her high,
To peaks of knowledge and book learning,
From the impervious overseas and elusive within,
Hence nature of her manner beyond manliness,
As she keeps profession and career all but soigné

She sussed and grew above sadism of political man
The usual money conscious Kenyan homo-politicus
Wallowing in mired corridors of powers that be,
Forcing our poor daughters into abyss of despair,
To be disarmed in total and hence, defenceless
Before the menace their money whetted appetite
An archaic persiflage above which Juma is grown

The mutton in the head of our august boys,
Now yells phobia unto the decorum in Juma-mannerism,
Awfully swearing to the selves; which way comrades,
If the womenfolk we all have puts on blue stockings
Where is the charm in our snobbish power then,
Before the skylarking maverick, decent sobriety
In the esteemed society of Monica Juma?

— By Alexander Khamala Opicho
Lodwar