Lit eZine Vol 5 | p-21 | POETRY | They Came For Mangoes – Manic Sylph Writes… Poetry & Thoughts by Mona Soorma

SHORT POEM

THEY CAME FOR MANGOES
by Ben Murigu

Mangoes in a basket — *Image by* *creativerejaul*

These six boys
Rugged and skinny
Arrive here with the sun
Armed with an empty makuti basket.

They sing and shout
Hop and skip.

They pretend to play
This weird, stupid game 
With cartons and stones and rope.

Caring not about the sun
Headed swiftly 
To his home.

Bothered not by the jiggers
Headed slowly 
Into their toes.

But they fool me not
With their shouting
And their yammering.

For I know
That when the sun goes down
The noise shall cease— 

Three of them shall go up
And the basket empty
Shall be filled 
To overflowing
With what they came for — 

Mangoes...
Ripe or otherwise — 

These things green
That adorn my land
But actually, really
Honestly, truly
Belong to no-one else
But them.

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Ben Murigu is a versatile creative from Nairobi-Kenya who, when not inculcating the tenets of Drama into the overly-eager charges in his care, delves into writing. He is credited with a list of raved-about theatrical productions that include The Cock Never Crows, Whose?!, Admissions & Mess, We Can and a short film Let it Go. He has self-published a fiction novel, Toy Soldiers, with recent works featuring in Dear Booze and Yours2Read.