How to save a drowning man
Who will not clutch at goodwill straws
At the 11th hour
To salvage the state of the nation
When he dug the puddle himself
Smothered his face in the sludge
Father is a village drunk with an Oxford Cum Laude
Father is a drowning man who suffocates;
Diplomatically
In 2 feet sewage
In 750ml bottles
Asking the world beyond to tell its secrets
Daring the spirits to take him under
Next time, if not this time
Who will stand to defend the village drunk vomiting his Bacchanalian Philosophy
who will decipher the subtext in staggered expressions of Camus
When he struggles to bear the weight of his own undoing
who will carry the diplomat piggy back and show him the way home
To a wife with frayed hairs and dish soap shriveled hands
To a daughter always on the cusp of a journal entry splotched with tears
To a house rotting in the tyranny of regret
Can the diplomat negotiate his way out of a captured state?
Jean Wathugu is a reader and writer born and bred in Nairobi, Kenya. She finds solace in the literary and arts scene at the heart of the city – where you’ll often find her. Her work has previously been published in The Brittle Paper. X : @jean_archived
Cover image credit: Ramon Karolan