SocialistStories حكايات اشتراكية

A Red Flag of Hope
by Maina wa Kinyatti

Aloneness
The cold chill of this life
But you have been in my mind
Throughout the season

How long this night?
The chains on my wrists and ankles
Whisper horror in my ears

The food half-cooked
Thrown on the dirty cement floor
The water contaminated
My cellmates lice and bedbugs

I have no other way to tell you
How they mutilate my soul
Every morning before the sun is awake
Do you hear my cry?
Can you feel my pain?

The guards
Have turned the prison
Into a charnel house
Neocolonial school has not taught them
Those who torture and kill patriots
Will one day pay with their lives

I have nothing to offer you
My love
But a flag
A red flag of hope

21 June 1982
Nairobi Remand Prison

Liberation:

A Red Flag of Hope - Maina wa Kinyatti.pdf