Poem for Samoei

it’s the fourth day

of the tenth month

or the fifth month

after she was painfully yanked away

from you

when a month’s candle

was almost gone

this evening

going through

the digital memories

of her laughter and smiles

made you scream

as if you had been

stabbed in the heart by a stiletto

o the pain of her sudden cruel passing

that screaming stab of a wailing scream

brought your auntie

and your two uncles

scampering ferociously

to your side

to wipe away the blood stained tears

gushing from your heart

now my dear niece

this guy who is your eldest uncle

he does not go to church on sundays

or observe ramadhan

I am no zen buddhist

armed with koans

nor a hindu garlanded

with sanskrit texts to recite

but a mere blogger

who pretends to be a poet

so please accept

these nocturnal digital lines

as makeshift handkerchiefs

to wipe away the

wounds of your reinjured pain

for I cry when you cry

i weep when you weep

i wail when you wail

you lost a mother

and i another sibling

a third one

this a second sister

that I did not

have the chance

to view one last time

before she was covered

under the mounds of kwa zulu earth

you lost a mother

who was also your father

your best friend

and your life long playmate

but dear niece

you are not alone

your two aunties
lost a second sister

your first cousins in jozi, paris and brussels

lost a loving auntie

your other uncle my younger brother

wept again

having recently buried a daughter

next to her mother and his father

i saw your mothers younger sister

wail demented

in kenya when the shock

of the news that her best friend

that she had spoken to

barely ten minutes previously

had collapsed and died

with the cellphone she was calling you 
and her older sister with

wlasped in her rigor mortared arm

dear niece

when i heard

the news from your sobbing aunt

at first I thought she was talking about

any of the four cousins

who shared your mother’s luo names

and then it hit me

that the oloo family

had lost another member

on the same day we

buried our eldest loving aunt

samoei

your name almost rhyhmes with samurai

i am sure some of your durban girlfriends

have wondered whether it is japanese in origin

but dear niece

let me tell you

samoei is a very kenyan name

it shares something with the japanese

is that it is named after a warrior

one of our greatest freedom fighters

who waged a ferocious campaign against the colonialists

for almost ten years

in full the name was 

koitalel arap samoei

and no it was not a girl's name

or drawn from the luo

it is a name your paternal grandma

gave you from her nandi ancestry

so you are mixture of south african

luo and nandi roots

you are androgynous in terms of name

named after a glorious man

even as you grow up to be a beautiful black woman

i could regale you with tales of your coming greatness

but you are already my hero, shero

the other day

i saw your brilliant latest high school report

and came to congratulate you on an academic job well done

and you surprised me with your incredble modesty

pooh pooing that remarkable milestone

as your worst record yet

making me amazed

that if what i found excellent

was beneath your standards

i was yet to know which heights 

you were able to soar to

samoei

let me end here

before it becomes an odyssey and 

long running ode

keep up your excellence in class, in rugby, in soccer in track and field

not forgetting you are a budding musical maestro

your loving uncle

onyango oloo

who shares your mother's last name