A Kikumi

I did not know the importance of a kikumi

which I throw away every time I pass 
the half naked poor sprawled on the street floor
 in the boiling heat and eye tearing wind
 on the dusty roads downtown Kampala until the day
I did not have it myself.

That leper with short limbs and downcast gaze
extended her metallic dish to me:
she was expecting a kikumi.
But I awarded her a runaway expression
I could not throw a kikumi into her dish

I was also looking for a kikumi.

NOTE: (kikumi = USh 100)


This revised poem was first published by Studio Edirisa on 31 Aug, 2010