THE NIGHT PROMISE

I did but promise myself

Never forget nor act flippant of the night,

When you told me forever your heart will be the shelf

For mice and chipmunks to have access denied,

And forever the seal of love will knit it tight

Where the urban lads though much tried

Their fists and blow wouldn’t match the fight,

Mine throws aside without bellows tied

 

For though horse and donkey racing

In the misty dust of the shining moonlight

And the donkey is used to tread

With cargo when it’s not from grazing

While the horse is fed in a noble stable

For though equal in height

Will the horse not faint?

 

I remember how love engulfed me

 Like a young nymph on the spider’s web

I would feel the throttling thrill

 Of your imbuing touch with no ebb,

Burning stares and flares of your scorching eyes

Drilling into my warm fresh making it a motionless ice,

For then we knew nothing about kissing

If we did your lips could hail in jail

For so sweet would it be

For me to notice the elm of my breathless wail

 

 

I remember you said the dark sight of the night never scared you

That the pavilion of the sky with its million stars still  n’er held you bold,

With wailing of the hungry beasts you still would hold

Just to tell me how much in love you were with me,

As I did fold to the touch of your tender breasts

The direction of the sensation cannot be told

Only to imagine at least

How forever of this might be

 

This promise came just that night

The night my neighbor brought the wrangle,

Of my father’s flock squandering his sorghum plantation

I had not lost my experience of the jungle,

Yet the mystique of it left me when you got into my imagination

Your mother sent you to the field for firewood,

The one in which a master I was known

For it took us to own

We got lost into a serene hood

There we enjoy the sweetest ‘fruit’ of love

As my father’s flock flew to terrorize my neighbor’s farm,

And now you were sent away in the dark night

Why did you fail to fetch firewood?

Was your mother mad at you for being in love?

 

I remember to love you is what I promised

And to bleach it was not a bid either

That you would tell your parent with sincere earnest

Your love for a shepherd was no more concealed

That the promise was to stand and yield

Never again was it a tale

You either hold the words or hold the lion’s tail

Is it because of love or not

That we will tie the knot?

Poet:Kinyua.