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at times i stare at black pages of night's sky
at times i stare at blank screens of my mind.
i do so wish then, within my heart of hearts,
that one day i will write three new stanzas
that will paint in ink of poetry or philosophy
the paradise-like land of our national anthem:
a poem that will consult spirits of those poets
whose work wished for justice, peace, liberty
in a kenya of their times and fellow kenyans,
a poem that will let these spirits and our own
arise and defend the land against endeavours
of a few but formidable kenyans whose politics
plays chess with our future and ethnic heritage
a poem that will be a spirit itself like Harambee
binding us all as has Annan's National Accord
into one national force, which like the words
of the three stanzas of the national anthem,
gives the heart of the land a feeling of hope.

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* J.K.S. Makokha is the Kenyan author of 'Reading M.G. Vassanji: A Contextual Approach to Asian African Fiction' (2009). He teaches courses in African and South Asian literatures at the Institut für Englische Philologie at Freie Universität Berlin in Germany.
* J.K.S. Makokha copyright © 2010
* Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at Pambazuka News.