BREAK HER LEG

 




BREAK HER LEG


Imani son of Oloo,

A woman is not a harp that you play for other men to dance

Or a dead snake that you scare children with as you head to the anthill

The sun illuminates her endowments for the world to see,

In the broad daylight as she bends to fetch the low-level waters of river Odundu

So son, do not let the night steal the woman away from you


Beware; the night has no honor to lazy men

Darkness is a man who seduces your wife while you are with her on bed 

Dont you know?

A weeding man may let loose his hoe, to gobble a cup of porridge

The crops are patient,

But Imani, do not surrender your wife to a lonely night!


Son of my brother, 

When the morning sun rises,

Bones crack as women bend to escort their barrels to their heads

Reorganization of muscles bent in disrespectful inclinations 

The silent night wasn’t so silent so to say


A newly married man must be watched in the morning

For the elders' eyes are on his wife's dress

When will it push?

When?

When will your wife’s dress bulge?

When will you break her leg, Imani?

Do not spare her for your love of a flattened stomach

Rivers swell in rainy seasons but droughts reshape them

Neither must you spare her for having tiny legs

That load has never broken anyone's back!


Son of Oloo,

A young empty woman is a disgrace to any society

Their legs walk anywhere

With their lips, they can burn a village

We ask you to break her legs for your own name to live after sunset

You do not want to be called by your name forever

Even by young children

Do you, Imani?


In our land Son of Oloo,

A newly married man must not come out to join in drumming the evil spirits away

The rest of the village strike an extra gong for him,

The heavy gong, the noisy gong!

Do not let them lose the sense in doing that

 Let them do so for the care of their prosperity

 

Break her leg 

So the day may know the voice of a little boy, 

Or the night the shrill of a daughter of our land 

For a fierce warrior you may be, in our land and beyond, 

Or your riches incomparable, 

But no one’s son will live to tell your story than one of your own.

@AnotherKenyan

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