A Country Man’s Son, Wife and Daughter & Other Poems – Cosma Mugisha

A Country Man’s Son, Wife and Daughter

I hang my son on a thread
To dry his clothes after a storm.
The thread’s knotted on the breast of his mother
Right in front of her tired heart.

My son soothes his cheeks with wild flowers—
I make his bed and every man’s
In the village so my palms are rough.
Yet when they all go to sleep
Into the Night, my hands lay’em down.

My wife dances for a full moon
And chews rose petals to sleep,
To spit them in my face.
She pulls our son from the chord 
And pins him on the wall to watch
Us attempt to forge a daughter.

My daughter—one day she might be
Long, frizzy hair and big, milky eyes,
A spirit of ten kings,
Stones and water under the bridge,
A jade we shall sell to the best bidder
So we can leave this mud house.

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Why Don’t You Close Your Eyes to Dream?

When all the stars are too old to see
It is your smile that will light our world, us, the moons of the Earth.

When I am pulled too close to the heat,
Your eyes, tempting and drunk of ecstasy,
Roll and roll until I freeze.

It is the song of your voice 
Running in my head on a crescendo that,
Like a sharp knife in butter, cuts the ribbon around my heart.

Don’t wake me up when the night dies too young,
Soberland means the end of you and me, don’t go there,
My love, let’s stay under the influence.

A kiss that quakes your breath and boils the blood in your veins, don’t give it up,
The story the world hasn’t heard of yet, don’t end it
Because the desire of our lips to tell it is everywhere:
In a beef sandwich, between lunch breaks, in a coffee cup, between blue linen sheets, in extra earrings, in French mornings…

Featured Photograph: Unsplash

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