A Kenyan Death Poem by kelvin karani

The aesthetics of a Kenyan death

Is a cathartic tragic play

Which like fire in the hearth

Prepares us for that day



Like soil death is everywhere

Candidates are picked almost randomly

And before you make your last prayer

Its talons pluck your heart unceremoniously



If you don’t die of hunger

Or any cause for those down the ladder

The police and army- all these armed militias

Are on standby to issue the visas



Death here is certain, expected

Welcome and sought for at times

It is the opium of the living dead

Whose lives are marred by tribulations.