The ogre is coming

Reflecting on Kenya’s (and similar) election crises

The children are crying

They’ve seen it before –

Its images from the past

Of sharp bloodletting fangs

Still fresh and vivid

Have been flashing on the wall!

Now a spooky darkness shrouds the room

With their squinting little eyes

They try, helplessly, to peer through

Hoping for a flicker of light

They hear voices

Of adults

Bragging, disparaging, threatening, menacing

Like puffs of malevolent serpents

The voices turn into a drowning noise

And melt into indistinctive voices

Of children

Painfully, the children prick up their ears

Craving the voice of an adult in the room

There is none

The children are scared

The ogre is coming