Confidential from Loreto

Pitter-patter I run to the chief’s boma

They say I received a confidential from Loreto

The queue long, I stand, I stand, and I stand

They say, it’s my lily’s; Selina

Who is endowed with sweetness of the river goddess.

A hundred fortnights have aged since

Unawares of the proximate cause

The confidential I receive is colored black

They say, it’s a foul demise, a requiem perhaps

I rebuke, retaliate, she plucked black lilies for I, the ugly at sight

Beautiful like raisins in the sun

Behold they await, the whole village and I

For Mwalimu Tairara to read the words

I now, I feel, how sweet they are

It opens, glittering gold in our eyes and he faints a smile

All of us does that, holding our breath’s

The smile vanishes like dew in the sun

We wait

Noisily he echoes, “Selina is court and wed!”

And back returns my father’s bride wealth

On paper, shillings a thousand and fifty only, money order

They curse

They say, gods keep us from things like that

And laugh, cheap morality perhaps.