NOW THAT YOU KNOW ME FULLY

NOW THAT YOU KNOW ME FULLY

Now that you know me fully

Why discuss my secrets

To only one person?

Know this, please: I am wide.

For this reason, I fear

You might burst at long last

If you keep my story to yourself;

You might burn to ashes

If you don't let go of it.

Please go on with the project. But

One customer is not enough. Why?

You won't enjoy Me to the fullest. Besides,

Other people too have ears.

Go arrange a conference

And explain Me to the people.

If you can't manage a crowd

Of tens of thousands of people

You'll invade one busy street

And talk Me to the people.

Talk to pedestrians one by one—

Whoever passes has an ear.

Or if you're too shy, woman,

To speak as you look at your audience

Compose and record a radio advert

Release it to all the radio stations

Found in the immediate world

(I'll help do the marketing part of it);

Use any language you think

Will entirely describe who Me is

So your audience won't have

Any stone left unturned.

Now that you know me fully

You have all feasible answers 

To both soft and hard questions.

Yes, yellow's the colour of my teeth

Because I lack a brushing stick

And paste is to me gold.

My nails are tall and soiled

Because I lack a razor blade

Which 'book people' hate to share.

My hair's a rat's black excrement

Because I lack a comb

That does it into a uniform mass.

My armpits are ever stinky

Because I lack deodorant

And I bathe at my own pace.

My whole skin is frog-rough

(It has got eastings and northings)

Because I lack lotion 

That would mask the grid reference.

Now that you know me fully

Do not stop at these;

Speak beyond my body looks.

Go into my bedroom as well:

Start with the leaking grass-thatched roof

Emotionally fed up with November rains;

Then go to the walls whose supporting poles

Termite bites have left hanging and slanting;

The litter on my bedroom floor 

Is allergic to the movement of a broom;

The curtain hanging in the doorway

Is torn in twain, from top to bottom

Yet no crucifixion took place;

My bed frame is a make of reeds

That creak each time I turn my ribs;

A  tuft of replaceable blonde hay

Packed and sealed in an Elizabethan sack

Has been my mattress from birth;

And my bedsheets, please don't forget,

Were last washed on New Year's Eve.

Now that you know me fully

You know which details to add

To secure continuity of your project.

Those one-after-another pedestrians

Talk to each of them in a soft voice—

They are your customers.

Let Me be known to them fully

In the morning when their ears are sharp

And in the evening when a day's work is over

Not at noon when the sun is hot.

Do this until you feel tired

Or until the project has fethced you

Enough money to keep you alive forever.

My ex-wife, 

In the natural course of things,

Projects normally collapse prematurely.

In case fate grants so, I pray

Don't regret anything. Don't blame anyone.

Now that you know me fully

You know which days of the week 

I'm at home and which time I'm free.

Come on one such day at one such time

Preferably when I'm in my bedroom

Resting upon that  record-breaking reed-bed 

Time me when I'm awake

(Of course, the creaking sound of the turning ribs

 Will always have me awake)

Once there, explain Me to me

As I carefully trace where you went wrong

Perhaps, O my beloved ex-

I'll help edit your language.

© Abiney Kitooke, 2021.