To A Coy President

Had we but world enough, and time, Your coyness, Emilio, were no crime. In leisure we'd sit down and think, Or chuckle over Kamenchu's wink. You could author a third fine book, 'Til foes depart, by hook or crook. While you and Lucy luxuriate With storied rooms to contemplate; Unrushed, your youth discern knowledge, And jobs and mates after college. Your phantom consensus will grow And time itself will move more slow. A philosopher-king may wait And let Presidential Debate rage abate - Lasting, I'd bet, one hundred years Of going rogue with snarling sneers. Change to "believe in" has no date, Awash with bipartisan debate. Was "Yote Yawezekana" unclear? You act like you have ages to spare. When a new world is on the line, Who dares rush creation divine? But at my back I always hear Foreclosure landslides hurrying near; And yonder all before us lie Our infrastructure gone awry. Somehow the urgency of now Got stuck in the bottleneck of how. Jobs are nowhere to be found Nor 'made-in-Kenya' resound; The dispossessed are in despair, The seas expand from global heat And nature warns of hard retreat. You swore rough dragons to defy Not slice in half each messy pie: Did you triumph on election day To waste a year above the fray? You flashed that smile from ear to ear, You sold us hope and banished fear. In sum, you promised something new, Not toughened chunks of Raila stew. Your staging had such perfect pitch, The payoff feels like bait and switch. Now therefore let us make amends, We liberals remain your friends; Our leftwing fervor still rings true, But you must come aboard anew. Battle shrill voices of reaction Head on, not with faint redaction. Henceforth, shake up the way things are, Relight your charismatic star; Take on a Parliament mired in slog, And bankers smug, high on the hog. Fire Kenyattas retreads far and wide, Embrace risk takers not hogtied, Freed from clutches of the super-rich, Vigilant 'gainst the oncoming ditch. Let us roll all our strength and all Our courage up into one ball, Rattle Kenya's gated life, And tear the system with rough strife. Thus, seize the moment and the sun, The game's afoot, it can be won. JCMT