Skip to main content

WHEN KWESI COMES TO TOWN

When Kwesi comes to town
Everything comes to a stop
Nothing matters, no one matters
Not even the wild Nairobi Fridays, or the weekly doze
Of DJ Leo at the black diamond which gives me the ultimate high
or the mad parties at Wanja's favorite tequila pub
When Kwesi is town, I lose my diary, my watch and my planner
I find my heart, and it beats…hard, fast,

"Hello Chebet"
"Guess who is in town?"
He says with his slight Accra accent that gives me a tingle
Excitement is hard to hide
Even after years of being female and trained in the art of faking
When Kwesi is in town,
Everything is different

Mysterious, Kwesi has a twinkle in his eye
But I can never call him mine
He knows, he sees, he smiles
As he teases me with his travel stories
He laughs, and flirts with the waiters
In an ever so attractive way
As we listen to jazz at the intercontinetal

He loves the music here tonight
And flirts with me about taking me back with him to Accra
I laugh like a little girl,
I close my eyes in endless dreams
That are nowhere here nor there
We chat, laugh and talk about our busy lives
Of the people we have met or never will meet
The things we have done or never will do
And as I look, listen, and soak the night away
I feel like a helpless 16 year old geek with a crush on the football captain

I am afraid
I like him more than I should
Worlds apart, but he brings me back my joy, innocence even
He says he misses me when he is away
But; miss you, and… like you
Are the warmest words that we share
Maybe, just a roll in the hay on this cold Nairobi night?
I wonder, feeling like a nun trapped in a whore's body
I lose my funny bone, and I want to get away, so after a few more jazz hits
Kwesi takes me to my waiting taxi
A hug, "good night," he waits till my taxi drives away,
I look at him until we take the curve, good night, I whisper to myself
When Kwesi comes to town, somehow,
I find my heart.



Comments

  1. Collinsom92July 2, 2008 at 3:12 PM

    hi terry!yamune(my wife is from your sides)? didn't know you have the gift, quite a vivid poem,thanks for the piece on blogging just that we never got to talk and the shot had me looking darker than life with a deep voice, must have been the setting,im happy to have come across your blog and will definately be reading, good day!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Terryanne ChebetAugust 11, 2008 at 3:20 PM

    Thanks Collins, about the piece on blogging...pole about that. We are ususally very keen on our shots, something must have gone wrong, anyway, thanks alot, and do ddrop by here once in a while!

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnknownAugust 13, 2008 at 12:43 PM

    hey TC...i never read poems but this is just the one..too deadly.keep them coming..its way too nice

    ReplyDelete
  4. TetSeptember 6, 2008 at 10:05 AM

    Hey Terry,
    Its been a while...a long while since i read you work and i must say this is great. Am sure to continue reading. Cheers gal

    ReplyDelete
  5. UnknownJanuary 5, 2013 at 5:37 PM

    I love this piece

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Meet Jason Runo.

Jason Runo is my Brother from another mother:-) and a friend I love from the deepest part of my heart. He is what I call a true citizen of the world.I worked with Jason during our News Anchoring days at KBC, we moved on to other pastures, he travelled the world, ( still does) and has now created a home for his experiences, using the most amazing phototgraphy, i remember a recent afternoon trip a top the most beautiful hill near olepolos, we took some pics, which I will post as soon as I can access my facebook:-) Until then...Experience Jason Runo. Photography is a language of the eye...Jason has mastered that language.I hope you love his site as much as I do.
2 comments
Read more

An Open Letter to Prof Makau Mutua, keep your predictions to yourself.

Dear Prof. Makau Mutua, “I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody's around - nobody big, I mean - except me. And I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff - I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That's all I do all day. I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it's crazy, but that's the only thing I'd really like to be.” ― J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye Prof, you and J.D Salinger clearly share no beliefs. And maybe you shouldn’t. But I feel that you would be the man with an evil laugh pushing the thousands of little children off the cliff. Let me explain. Your tweet on the 23rd of Dec 2012,in Buffalo, New York "@makaumutua I predict a military coup in Kenya after t...
69 comments
Read more

Bite of the mango- Mariatu Kamara, A Review

This past weekend was a quiet one for me. I had a lot to think about and organise, exams to prepare for, and a book, highly recommended and owned by my friend Kirigo Ng'arua. Bite of the Mango. Bite of the mango is a true story about an 11 year old girl called Mariatu Kamara from Sierra Leone, who grew up in a normal village of about 200 people. Her story is paints a picture of life before the rebels struck and after. From the eyes of a child. Mariatu writes the book in simple child-like English and in her own voice. I sort of felt that she was right there narrating it to me. She grew up with her Aunt and Uncle because of her mother's drunken habits. She lived a happy simple life, typical of most African village life, where all the older people were respected as parents, and all the younger ones lived like siblings. They cooked, ate and slept as if they were one family. The girls got married when they were very young, about 13 years old, and many of them, despite h...
3 comments
Read more