Poetry by Frank Njugi

/ Senegal – May 17, 2022 ; Three arrests after alleged homophobic
attack on foreigner ( africanews.com ) /

 

                                                            So it is better to speak remembering
                                                                      we were never meant to survive
                                                                           – A litany for survival , Audre Lorde

 

I take a photograph of my body as it performs
a requiem for a cousin whose accent makes

a cottonmouth sound like an iguana. What do
you call a skin peeled like a sardine, for loving

a fellow man, if not the reeving of a history;
if not a nautical seatback in a sea that reaves

kin of acumen. That’s why the picture is a
rear-view to my autoportrait as an indemnity

of a resistance; & my pores sing to the echo
of my zeroing in towards home….

 

 

 

Transience

/ SEATTLE – October 23, 2008 – A man was convicted in Seattle, USA
for stabbing his Kenyan girlfriend to death ( Capital News ) /

 

                                                            A river killed a man I loved,
                                                                 I love that river still
                                                                      —María Meléndez

 

When an otter is domesticated with
the sentimentality of a feline,

that might imply the fraught sauntering
of our history as we squirm

amidst lumbar pains from carrying
the depths of a failed mortality.

So we read Emma Lazarus,
recite with valour ‘The New Colossus’

& flaunt our bereavement as the ekphrasis of a
caustic drop whose end is a trampoline of grief;

for there is a defamilarization from geography
that deceives a body in stasis of its elitism….

Bio

Frank Njugi (He/Him) is a poet, writer who writes from Kenya. He is a member of the editorial team at Salamander Ink Magazine and his work has appeared on platforms such as Roi Feineant press, 20.35 Africa, Kalahari Review, Konya Shamrusmi, Olney Magazine , Ibua Journal and others. He tweets as @franknjugi.

He loves reading hard books, listening to music, and scooping inspiration from the stream of mundane activities. He enjoys playing with street photography, graphic designing, and photo editing.

Originally published December 1, 2023