Those were the days
Days when beauties were beautiful
Beautifully black like the coal
Today they look like white ghosts
With decorated faces like shameless shanties

Those were the days
Days when true brotherhood
Was the only blood in our veins
Today that brotherhood blood is thick
Only selfhood blood boils in our bodies

Those were the days
Days when people smiled
With warm welcoming hearts
Today they laugh with hateful hearts
Only to stub each other with wretched words

Those were the days
Days when we all knew
Our true rooted roots
Today those roots are uprooted
Practices perished like fallen fellows

Those were the days
Days when we lived in the kingdom of peace
Together we worked like ants on a mission
Today we’re at war with our own kind
Like bulls in a slaughterhouse, we get maimed.

© Stephen Juma