the system and my poetry

when I begun to write,
I wrote of beautiful nights,
oceans and breathtaking sights,
I wrote of blue skies
warm love and genuine hi’s,
I wrote the truth in mans eyes
that paradise in our minds.
I wrote of epic love stories,
of two individuals as one,
of genuine friendship,
brotherly love.
I wrote of what truth lay in my heart.

Today things have changed,
anger and pain
fuel the hate that rages within,
seeing people starve in northern Kenya,
community’s illiterate of the AIDS epidemic,
rape and murder all over the country,
hearing of war in Somalia,
doctors rioting on our streets.
What can I write now?
Where can I get the beauty of life?.
The environment is suffocating with corruption.

Now i write of these,
the pain, the agony of Kenyans,
I write of the oppressed the majority,
the pain they persevere,
sleeping on the pavements,
being hustled by the government,
I just begun paying taxes
And *goddamn!
I write of the pain in mans eyes,
of the eroded smiles
of our despairing faces.
poetry has changed,
and so have I.
™©Mwangi Njoroge.