How much is a taxi

to Nairobi West

where my woman lives?

I must guard her

from that Luo

with a thick flat nose

she's my territory

 I'll defend her with money

 and my balls.

‍

I love her double deal

how can you forget a woman 

into whom you die smoothly?

she makes me good coffee 

and tells me good words

she touches me

with smooth cooling hands 

different from my wife's fire

she and I drink

from the same bottle

we know a lot

 about each other but

she has sharp eyes.

over my money

but so what

I don't mind paying tax

to her imperial being

‍

It's pathetic 

the way she looks at me 

when I come 

she sees a daddy in me

because 

she hasn't got any puppy

she's a beautiful bitch 

bottle, come to think about it

‍

Me, it's not that I like 

telling lies, but

I’m forced to lie

anyway 

we are all liars

the difference

is in the degree

in which we cheat 

‍

She has nice-looking eyes

with orphan smiles

that call my money

out of my wallet

just, one more beer

for the road then I'll be dead

until tomorrow.

‍

Beer, after taking you

I can look at my wife 

in the eye when I'm lying

I wish I could live

with a clean conscience

with purity of the heart 

that doesn't lie

that doesn't hate

but the animal in me 

frustrates me,

‍

I'm eaten up

by the guilt of the volume 

of lies that I've told

I dislike the way in which

I conduct affairs of my heart

‍

What a tough world

I used to think I'd be rich 

through saving big money

for advancing myself

but I fucked up

my path to fortune

‍

My beer, why do you cry 

for every little shilling 

in my backyard?

‍

Everywhere I pass

goods things stare at me

for me to buy them

with empty hans

‍

Look at myself

I wanted to educate myself

to reach university, but

beer and women

fucked up my ambition 

‍

But so what 

life must continue 

my dear bottle

you surely make up

for everything I’ve lost 

dear beer, sink into me

and make me feel

I've got my degree

Or else

my wife and my kids

are my degrees.

‍

I shall die the same death

that also the rich will die 

kings and queens 

with university degrees

will also die dead

‍

Barmaid, come close

let me touch your goods 

before you give me 

another bottle

I must live my life

to a certain degree

‍

I see many good things 

in you 

you're beautiful

fuckable

d'you know that?

‍

Are you a woman

or a girl?

d'you want to be a wife 

or a whore?

Oh, come on, don't go 

before you tell me 

how many times 

you've aborted.

come! come, please!

‍

Have you ever been made 

pregnant?

how many men 

has your workshop milked 

do they cry

when you milk them?

‍

Bottle, why did she go 

hell, do I stink?

how can that be 

not me 

I'm a great man

in spite of my failures.

‍

Too many things

man wants to become

there was a time I wanted 

to be an Air Force  pilot

I wanted to fly jets

in supersonic speed

zooming

and zwiiiiping into the sky 

towards God’s residence 

‍

I wanted to have power l

like thunder

to terrify men

my deer bottle 

why didn't I fail

am I weightless upstairs?

‍

Beer is great 

for self purification 

dear beer 

you're my confidant 

tell me the philosophy

of survival

in this tough world, where

too many events 

greet you with 

what you didn't want

and kills you in the end

like a helpless rat

‍

I drink to kill time 

in the art 

of drinking out my frustrations.

‍

God damn that girl, Mbeneka 

‍

with squints 

once upon a time

I had a scholarship

to study forestry in Russia 

but I turned it down

in favour of the squint

whom, nonetheless I lost 

in the end.

‍

I miss her squint features 

the manner in which

she used to look at me 

one eye at me

the other one at God 

with mystery in between

she looked funny 

in tears 

where the hell

did Mbeneka go?

‍

The squint in Mbeneka

had thin and long 

flamingo legs, but 

she was tight sexually

Mbeneka killed me

in good installments

‍

God, what did I run for 

in marriage, during which 

I married out my freedom?

‍

A boy thinks 

real life is in getting married

when emotional capitalism 

beckons you

but the story changes 

when you grow older 

when love can even stink

‍

Women 

are messy creatures

yet indispensable

I'd have done wonders

if only I didn't rush 

into the prison called marriage.

if only, only

I could be single again 

my beer bottle 

what d'you think?

‍

I've fucked enough to know 

there's more to life

than sex

I fucked out my fortune.

if it weren't for my wife 

I’d be very far elsewhere 

hell or paradise, perhaps

‍

Oh yes, that woman 

saved me 

for many a man

salvation is through woman

my wife is my castle

I tell you

my bottle, what d'you think?

‍

My wife keeps me

spiritually clean

and shields me

against destruction 

by other women 

I 'd be a weakling

without my wife

tonight I must drink

and toast

to the health of my wife

in spite of

her automatic mouth-gun.

‍

When I tell her 

she's my castle 

she calls me a liar

in the belief that

I must lie to her every day.

‍

I don't lie always

It’s my wife who forces me 

to lie to her 

ethical lies are healthy 

to any marriage.

‍

So easy to tell a lie 

but keeping the lie 

is so expensive.

‍

Take a lie at the risk

of damaging your soul

you'll always remember 

the lie you told him

whenever you meet the victim 

dear beer

what about the lies 

you’ve been telling me?

‍

I struggle to say no 

when it is no

and say yes

when it is yes, but

the route to survival is beset 

with demands 

that you must lie

in order to pass.

‍

God, tonight 

I feel pretty filthy muddy 

and entangled

on my way to this place

I've eaten filth

dear bottle let me forget it

I quarrel with myself always 

because of my slips 

today I mess up with myself

then beg for self forgiveness 

at the denial of my soul

I'm a bastard 

born to live dwarf life

‍

But so what, dear bottle

am I not better than Mumo 

with his B.A degree? 

what a human write off 

who drinks like fish

and fucks up jobs

thrice divorced, perhaps 

for fucking wives wrongly

‍

His last wife ran on him 

minus some of her teeth 

he's destined to die alone 

with his B.A

‍

Me, I've never seen

the inside of a university 

yet I speak

and spurt power

you bastards, keep off 

I drink my own money 

and fuck with my own penis

‍

I’d do much better 

than my lousy MP 

who sits m Nairobi always 

until next general election 

by then his hot penis

one school girl

after another school girl

in his game of adulteration 

with people's wives too

as if he were elected

to messy up with citizens

I wish him a good death 

through the channel of AIDS 

in order to pave way

for a better MP

‍

When election comes

he pours money 

hell knows where he gets it

what a moral thief

in leadership

paid by the government

to continue stealing

and scheming evils.

‍

He was born

with a cheating blood

he was craftily cheeky 

when he was a boy 

armed with lethal words

for seducing girls

at his ungodly age 

he'd strut about girls

with a thin penis

claiming he was a man 

some cheeky girls demanded 

Being shown his pubic hair 

before submission

he'd then go behind the bush 

and uproot his hair 

then return to the girl

with a smile 

crying here! here! look!

‍

His cheating trade thrives

by leaps and bounds 

day by day 

he's specialized 

in political thuggery

‍