Asante Sana

Asante Sana

Sleeping smoothly in the womb

Staring at the torturous light

Screaming as two, savage, silver irons

Clashed, cutting my flesh rope from mother

You gave me life

You gave me breath

Asante sana                         mungu

I stretched my ten, tiny, sausage stubs

Begging to be held, to be protected

Until I reached my mother’s vanilla arms

But you, gave me these hands

So that I, could squeeze

My mother’s smooth, soft cheeks

Asante sana                         mungu

The broken pedal, punctured tires, scraped knees

Limping, crying, wiping tears and slimy snot

With dirt hands and blood shirt

Mother’s hands washing and her handkerchiefs wiping

The dirt, blood, fear, and anger

But your sheltering embrace and icy breath

Concealed my shame and cooled my scorched ego

Asante sana                         mama

I saw the spices singing with angels’ chorus in the bazaar

I drank the sweet dry rain as the desert’s cruel claws clutched my heels

Begging my tongue to miss a drop

I fled from a country that returned my love with bullets

Perturbed and frustrated, the desert’s breath tickling my nose

But you were the conductor and swallowed the bullets

Asante sana                         baba

I writhed under the drought’s shadow

Dancing with the lions, running with the cheetahs

When you scolded the rain to do its job

Laughing with murderous joy as I left for the West

But you stained my feet with Africa’s dirt

And pierced my heart with the laughter of orphans and hyenas

Told me to remember, to never forget

Asante sana                         bwana

Asante sana, Asante sana

Two words I was born with, lived with,

Cried with, laughed with, sang with,

Two words I cannot say enough

Asante                        Sana