Biography:
Phyllis Muthoni has contributed poems to Kwani? and the ‘Black Arts Quarterly’ magazine (Stanford University). She has been writing poetry ‘seriously’ since 2003. Her investment in time and thought shines through her recent collection, Lilac Uprising , which has been likened to ‘a cool drink of water: clear, spare, fresh and vital’ (Doreen Baingana, author, Tropical Fish). Lilac Uprising, the title poem, is part of a four-piece poem that utilizes the life stages of a Jacaranda tree to highlight how she deals with the loss of her grandmother. Phyllis works part-time as a poetry editor.
‘Phyllis Muthoni has written and courageously self-published a book that redefines how Kenya can be viewed…It is a thrilling read, a collection of fantastic poems that converts what we see from the corner of our eye into something kaleidoscopic…’
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Hargeysa
I came to you the first time pretending I could understand,
figure you out, cup your soul in my hand, map it, and sell it.
Tarmac roads and electronics shops slapped my empty hand.
The streets bathed in women’s gorgora
vivid like Joseph’s coat multiplied.
Plastic bags in yellow, pink, blue, fluttered
like nests in the thorn bushes,
filled with ghosts of birds long-fled.
Strawberry and blue ice cream walls:
could I help dreaming in colour?
My eyes closed against fine sand.
Very firmly against begging children
and makeshift hovels close to Parliament.
I know this time
that this is a place you come to listen
to the sound of hues, of wind-driven grit,
of bullets and weddings in the night;
to hear the story of the MIG trapped in time.
And see the power of the Somali woman.
One day I might begin to know.
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