Tuesday Poem by Shingai Kagunda

IS SHE HOME?

Does she make you happy?
Sorry, wrong question. Does she believe in revolution?
Is she pretty?
Sorry, wrong question. Does she wear an Afro in the shape of the African continent?
Does she call it the motherland? A memory from her mother’s mother’s land?
Does it carry our land’s brown in its crevices and cracks?
I digress
Is she smart?
Sorry, wrong question. Does she stimulate your mind with captivating dreams of your home country?
You do remember your home country, don’t you?
The one you told me you would come back to build,
These city streets swarming with people who have left their shamba fields to come and build
I digress
Is she tall? Short? Fat? Thin?
Sorry, wrong question. Does she carry Africa within her in the way she walks?
Do her hips swing and sway the way you said you liked?
Not sexually but sensually?
Does she move with an understanding of her own humanity?
Is she funny?
Sorry wrong question. Does her laugh make you laugh?
Is she easy to talk to?
Sorry, wrong question. Tell me about your conversation.
Can you talk about everything under the sun but always come back to that one story where two broken people fall in love with an even more broken people’s history?
Is she home?