Photo Credit: Kainebi Osahenye
Senzeni Na ?
My bedroom light flickers in the cold air,
A configuration of everything you used to be.
We sit in the wreckage of a silent room,
Searching the dust for a reason/a sign/a decree.
Senzeni na?
What have we done to deserve this winter?
Senzeni na?
What is the sin that cost us the light?
My clock keeps ticking with a cruel taunt,
It measures the seconds we’ll never know.
Holding our breath to keep the edges soft,
Yet, life let the darkness go.
Sifting through the memories of broken glass and bone,
Asking the ceiling for the logic of the thief.
That stole the breath from the chest we called home,
And left us the architecture of the unending grief.
Was it a bargain?
A debt we forgot to pay?
Did we love too loud? Did we ask for too much?
Will the universe answer in the dark of the day?
With a silence that burns at the slightest of touch.
Senzeni na?
We hold the echo of a name we shouldn’t keep.
Senzini na?
We are the ones left awake, while you’ve gone to sleep.
Our questions will never get answers,
We ask why to a sky that has turned its face away.
We are nothing but the ash of a sudden fall,
Trying to learn how to exist in the debris of the day
Contributor’s Bio
Vundi Mwilu is an emerging poet and creative writer whose works explores the quiet intersections of life meaning and the human condition. His works prioritizes stillness, simplicity and an observant gaze on the everyday. He’s a scholar of Peace and Conflict Studies at St. Paul’s University, currently working on his first poetry collection on Death, Grief and Recovery. Vundi lives in Nairobi, Kenya.
