This load.Sometimes it takes up all the space in the room.It sits next to you, follows you around,refusing to be left behinduntil you start believing you’re the only onebarely holding it together.This load,It breaks you until pain feels important.It walks around the room like it owns the place.For a moment,You don’t think about the woman… Continue reading POEM #26
POEM #25
I finally found a place to put this fragile heart But I still hear it cracking in the dark I see it, resting in your hands, careful, cautious.Yet every time you leave, the silence makes it bruise I built the walls so high, then tore them down for you But I keep wondering if love… Continue reading POEM #25
POEM #24
I want to talk to Godin these unfinished thoughts,because I know faith demands attention.Lord, I have carried mornings I never asked for,and I have watched myself survive the day.Some days, these tears from my pastrise up and undo me.I understand that pain follows the strong,because the weak collapse too soon.Still, some days I am weak.I… Continue reading POEM #24
POEM #23
Every day stings a bit less. That you made the decision to walk all over my healing still baffles me, I don’t understand it. How could you see me trying to put myself back together and still choose to be another reason I had to? But I get it, and I am no longer standing… Continue reading POEM #23
POEM #22
I saw you again last night.In my dreams. At least for a moment,loneliness forgot my address.I don't know why you keep showing up there,but somehow I prefer it to my waking heart. Because here, rejection serves itself without permission,and silence always knows my name. You smiled.Called me yours,Loving me was easy and being yours felt… Continue reading POEM #22
POEM #21
I'm standing here holding love in my hands,Clueless where to put it.It rests here like a living thing.Warm, trembling slightly.Too alive to throw away,Too faithful to abandon,Yet too heavy to carry.I've turned it over a hundred times.Looked for hands to place it,Leaned toward every open doorBut it recoiled from the cold,Too shy for unfamiliar hands.I… Continue reading POEM #21
POEM #20
If at all the day feels heavy, and you are struggling to find a reason to smile, I hope you remember the last M-Pesa message you received.I hope you smile the way we do on payday,when, for a few short hours,life feels like it is finally on our side. I hope you order KFC and… Continue reading POEM #20
POEM #19
I want to go back to the little townWhere peace was served like morning tea,And the day came without asking anything from you. I want to laugh with familiar faces,And watch the womenSpew tones of humour in conversations with serious faces,Not realising the sarcasm and mischief they carried so naturally. I want to sit in… Continue reading POEM #19
POEM #18
May you never be the one that had potential. May they never speak about you with a sigh. An almost.May nothing unfinished settle on your shoulders like a coat you forgot to wear. And may your life never become a museum of unfinished dreams. For you I pray that the gifts you have never stay… Continue reading POEM #18
POEM #17
My heart is doing that unfamiliar flip again. It's beating like it no longer wants to stay inside me.Doubting this body that's still in pain and learning.Thumping your name with every stubborn pulse.Wondering if it should keep breaking open or finally let you go. So I try to force your name out of my trembling… Continue reading POEM #17
Nancy Atieno's Notes 