only memory

A long time ago before we knew power was a horse that reared and never missed. Before we understood that pain was a thing that burnt cold. Long before we felt the hunger of tunnels or the denseness of too many words crowding at the mouth.

Till we found that life could drip anger. Or that sadness was a canvas with too many hues, and we were tinted by all of them. A long time before this when we learned you could drown in tears.

Do you remember what our tomorrows looked like before the reality of walls? Before we were an impossible lostness trapped in the wings of things that neither moved nor stayed.

A long time ago in would-be-phantoms to live for. Before sadness was a skin you couldn’t unthread from the body.

Yassin Moyo|Khamis Juma|Calvince Omondi|David Kiiru|Peter Gacheru|Christine Aoko|Eric Ngethe|Idris Mukolwe|Ramadhan Juma|John Muli|Ibrahim Onyango|Vaite

How long are our names ours if only memory holds them?