The Snake

"Bring me a young beautiful woman."
A woman was brought
after a charismatic shout
came from an able bodied man.
The young beautiful woman was ordered
"hold your "athoch" at the hips."
Oh! - this is to stop the snake from getting away.
As its new polished scales shine to mock us in arrogance.

A snake
that ate or killed
at least everybody's something.

But the GIANT snake is not in a hurry
to slither away
today or tomorrow or next week
because a woman's underclothing or not
they will never see or kill it 

Because they are all part of it,
from the man that let out the shout
to the young maiden that was brought.

The chief and police is its sharp eye
the sweeper, its rattling tail
the accountant, its venom rigged hollow fungs
The cabinet, its deadly poison
and I, the onlooker, its backbone.

by Ken Oketch

She Looked At Him

She looked at him
like a magical train she traveled in
carrying her through the dark night
making everything right
when it was cold outside

she looked at him
like a rocket that took her so high in the space
with painful sweet pleasure

He looked at the train
like a wonderful lover
whom last night her love alone
covered him like a rock
from the common pain that comes with love

He looked at it
like a woman he is waking up from inside her thighs
with satisfaction and sighs.
 

I AM A BUTTERFLY

I am a butterfly.
The coloured wings,
The vanity of my life
when paralyzed by the sting of a spider with a diabolic face

The spider that looms in the dark
but wears white in the light
the true king of comouflage
-all tells it.

They say I was a catterpillar.
Before that, a defenseless being
metamorphosing in cocoon of years.  
as if it would make my fears
of becoming anything else
or not becoming anything at all
and facing the fate of being a butterfly
-stay hidden.

The Only Known Medicine

In the ocean of life
nothing sinks the heart
like a new found loss, - afloat
on top of the deep waters of life

The heart longs to burst open
to empty into the cosmo all that it can not soften
thorns, blades, knives and needles thick an' thin
of life that prick and cut it from within
As  it bleeds only to respond
to the only medicine known -

Time.