My Father's Wife

She shines like the morning dew,
Lips as red as hot fire,
And a smile that turns heads.
She walks in calculated steps,
Her waist doing harm to onlookers,
Her blessed behind leaves drool in people's mouths,
As they sway from side to side.
Her zeal never getting lost,
Her watery eyes never losing course.
She looks heavenly,
Like the perfect diamond anyone could wish for,
My father's wife.

She twists and turns in her kingsize bed,
Constantly brushing her expensive hair to one side,
The sun's rays against the bedroom window, do not make any sense to her.
Maybe she's lazy
Maybe she's more comfortable,
Maybe she just adores her bed more than anything else,
My father's wife.

She has subjected me to abject solitude,
Confined me in a room slightly smaller than police cells.
I have no audacity to talk,
I have no authority to mingle with other people.
My only companion is my image,
Formed through a cracked mirror that I managed to sneak in.
My bondage is the kitchen store, where I find peace when rats visit.
Its the only close I can get to any mammal.
And even as they lick my toes in cruelty,
I feel rejuvenated.
My father's wife.

She sits crumpled on the sofa,
Her body too wide for the stool,
Yelling commands to my little self.
I freak out at her commanding tone,
And drop the tea pot that is half balanced in my hands,
It crumples into a million pieces,
Each piece laughs at me, how dare I??
My father's wife.

My inner self begs to be spared on this one,
Yesterday it was a plate, today its a teapot.
My hands have fallen in love with the act of being loose,
I try but I can't help it.
She pushes me too hard,
Too hard to bear.
My father's wife.

Food is now a foreigner to my stomach,
Maybe by choice, but not mine
Not that I don't know how to cook,
Perhaps am the best in the Northern Sahara.
But my father's wife,
She won't fathom the idea of me eating,
She'd rather give the left overs to the needy neighbours,
So that they sing praises about her everyday,
But I cannot eat.
My father's wife.

My father's wife,
Today you went to see your son in school,
Pass my greetings to him,
Tell him I have a brother in him .
And when you finally return,
The keys are on the kitchen counter,
Because when I put thisoen down,
It will rain.