I
My secret is placed on your cheek
and mistakes have blown with the wind
in this place where we’re in a kiss
I blow you my love, and when it lands on your cheek
it’s my heart that next wants a kiss
it’s my lips that call out to your lips
and my hands are all on your skin
like a fingertip tracing a verse in a Bible.
II
I’ll catch you like God says he’ll catch the grieved, the sad and the sick
all that I have and am will love you like the devil loves sin.
I call to you like the worship songs call to the Holy Ghost
for you are to be kissed like the son of man was on his feet.
III
What God has decreed
is that love is a gift
unwrapped is my gift
with your name stamped on it.
Toxic love’s been soothed
by the antidote, you.
//
You buried the romantic in the dirt and stomped on the ground with your foot to make sure the ground was intact enough not to cave in and unearth that part of you. You swallowed the sun and her star sisters in handfuls of angst. The green land turned rusty
The following short story was the only Kenyan story in the creative non-fiction category that was shortlisted for the African Writers Awards in 2022. Inspired by true events. Beauty is a hunted-down beast, a double-edged sword slitting slayer and slave. You hate the ones who have it and hate too
Which animal would you compare yourself to and why? I think of myself as an immortal jellyfish. I glow at the bottom of the dark ocean, regenerating over and over again. That, no matter the pain I experience, I burn and break and revive. I think of myself as a
Water is She who can conjugate her scattered beads to contort, excite and disrupt. She wears her grin at the sight of the entropy she leaves when she rages. She spreads her legs and flashes her grandness between, above, and through all that can be had. One can sniff the
Copyright © 2024 Kendi Karimi- All Rights Reserved
Email: info@kendikarimi.org
Address: Nairobi, Kenya
Email: info@kendikarimi.org
Address: Nairobi, Kenya
Copyright © 2024 Kendi Karimi- All Rights Reserved
