Author: Benjamin Nambu
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She imagines
She imagines what it means to have a mother. Hers died while bringing her into the world. Like some marathon, she was handed the baton. And here she was, wondering what this race is all about. She recalls the many times she’s hanged unto someone she considered a mom. It didn’t take long to see…
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The watch uncle gave me
Mother had traveled. And upon returning, she brought me a toy phone and a wrist watch. Gifts from Uncle T. Normally, uncle would be called on the phone for me to say ‘thank you’ to him. But phones were not common those days, and my parents didn’t have one. Imagine my joy having a phone…
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watching the experts
I sat on my bed watching from my laptop on a bedside table, occasionally worried if the volume disturbed my neighbors who lived next room. Something was on my mind : will these people be advocating for fidelity in relationships if theirs were so thorny with complications that they couldn’t wait to be out of…
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words said into young ears
there’s this poem I read in childhoodabout looking up to oneself in all thingsI remember the principal telling us boyswhile interpreting the poemthat people who never intend helping you financiallyalways say “Oh, I just gave out my money to X”“I would have helped if you asked earlier.”we giggled, thinking it was a funny tale he…
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Mouchidath and Yasa
From our conversations, I inferred that she wanted to marry someone older than she was, someone more financially stable. I was surprised she thought of giving Yasa a chance. Yasa was much younger. Perhaps it was because he had money. I wouldn’t say she was materialistic. Yasa had helped her a lot. He got her…
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A lonely trip to Tripoli
a lonely trip to Tripoliwhere abandoned motel light bulbs dangle in violent windslike the balls of a bull in motioncasting concrete eerie shadowson squeaky doors with no keysscreaming softlyas if mourning the death of a once buoyant city a lone guitarist plays for the listening windsmessages that never reach the earsof the sleeping, heaving wavesof…
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God is watching …
Sometimes it feels some people have turned themselves into GodDeciding what is right and what is wrongDeciding who should live and who should dieMany imposters may try to play GodBut that role is too big to be filled by any pair of buttsGod sees everythingHe hears everythingThe worst a mortal can do is kill another…
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The still small voice
a still small voicespeaking to you in what seems likeyour own voiceyour own thoughts Nudging you to let goof the water slipping out of your clenched fistof hard efforts that have come to nothing a still small voicethat’s always lived with youinvisible like the windstealth like movements in the dark yet each time it speaksit’s…
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I will get there
I munch food noisily. Not deliberately. Naturally. I did not know this. I’ve been living alone and I had never paid attention. Until I found myself at a dinner, in the midst of respectable people, with no music to mask anything. The discovery was embarrassing. There and then I had to practice eating in a…
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Butukwen and his mother
Her son had a challenge. Physically, he was alright. Mentally, he was unstable, couldn’t sit at one place and behaved more like a toddler for his age. Personally, I felt his mother should have looked for a personal teacher for him, a teacher who taught him at home. Or maybe, the school should have separate…
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