“The portrait of a nation”

A Portrait of an impoverished

People, emaciated children’s

Mouths flocked with flies

By the stench of hunger attracted

Flies that edifice another layer

Of lips, atop the thirst cracked ones

Stomachs that have not been

Home to food for days on end

Hopelessness a feature obvious

On these innocent beings faces

A portrait of an impoverished

People, scavenging for left over

Meals heaped upon filthy bins

Brawling over it akin to lions ripping

Apart the only gazelle in the feral

Aware that, they know not where

From the next meal cometh, and

The dusk dreaded, for nights are

But spend out in the cold on

Pavements, the only known home

This masterpiece conceived by

The elite of the people, coined to

Details impeccable is nothing

Worthy of global exhibition, yet

In the museums of our minds

They linger, with the brush of

Impunity more paint is smeared

Red, shed in PEV, ended in IDP

Then wiped the green in MAU now

Behold, a portrait of looming draught

By Clifford B. Okumu