THE PRISON GALLOWS
BY ADOL AKUEI, ELDORET, KENYA
–
I’m robbed of my life’s values and pins,
In the ocean full of sharks and dolphins;
Where I’m bartered like a horse on strings,
Where my labor is equated to bribes,
Where I’m bruised on with leather flogs,
Where I’m locked up in the cage of sorrows,
Where men kicked me up like a ball – with sores,
Making me darted on the ground,
Producing sounds of bitter cries,
Like a sodium metal placed on water surface.
===
I’m robbed of my life,
For reassuring myself from terror in the strife,
Filled with ripples of hope in the “unconsidered norms”,
In the midst of the ‘these’ men in uniforms,
Who’re the lickers of my blood which oozed out,
That It will be fine,
Yes – it will be fine one day with my soul,
And my soul that had suffereth,
Dis’ obnoxious scene will healeth,
For the Lord sayeth, “He is the father of the fatherless,
Therefore, He will heal the broken hearted”.
===
I’m robbed of my life,
Just because I’m a refugee,
Even a refugee can be respected,
I’m robbed of my peace,
Just because I’m a foreigner,
Even a foreigner is protected by the constitution,
I must still say that —
It’s okay with my soul.
===
I’m robbed of my life,
For coming into this intoxicating ‘ocean’,
To be a beggar for better life via turmoil,
With my own expenses on a soil,
That my mother had never experienced,
Labor pains to bore me,
===
Indeed —, the story of the Israelites,
While in Egypt will be my arsenal,
In overcoming this incongruous kind of life
===
I ‘m robbed of my life,
With ‘the legal apparatus of life’ in this country,
I’m bitter about it with outcry,
They handcuffed me in my room at night,
Like a criminal on the streets,
On the grounds that I’m illegal in their country,
Yet they shredded my defensive documents,
With the gun nozzle pointed at me,
===
They held me hostage,
‘Toa kitu kidogo’ phrase rented,
The vicinity of my room,
===
As if I was a thug,
Ransacked was my house,
Looting and taking away with me- –my pocket money,
That amounted to ten thousand Kenyan shillings;
My Hp model laptop and smart infinix phone were no exception,
I was then held on the belt,
Thrown into the Land cruiser Toyota car,
Later on dropped on the dark streets of Kibera,
And left to go back home empty,
With wounds and blows from these fiery men,
After robbing me my life,
===
What a gallows of life I was in,
To hang on my own self!
“Toa kitu kidogo” is a Kiswahili word for bribery meaning “bring something small”.
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(The above poem expresses the plights of a young South Sudanese student in Kenya under severe insecurity forces based on the brutal action taken on foreigners by the Kenyan police following the cabinet secretary for internal security on work permit yet he is not working in Kenya.)
(ADOL AKUEI, the author of this poem is a student at Moi University, Eldoret, Kenya. You can reach out unto him through his email: adolakuei@gmail.com)
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