Listen.

Is it the trembling of reeds

Or my tremulous  thoughts

That ebb and flow with the incoming tide?

 

Look.

The sun glides behind the clouds

And I forge a trail ahead,

Or perhaps leave a path behind

 

Feel.

Ethereal emanations of the nyatiti

Ayub Ogada on a willing lyre

His voice soft with vulnerability

 

Know.

They predicted thunderstorms today

“kothbiro, kothbiro” he says

Speaking of the coming rain…

 

Understand.

“Auma, do you hear what I say

The rain is on it’s way

Return our cattle home”

 

And then again,

Ricocheting voices

From cattail to cattail in vain  hope

the wayward wind would stop to listen.

 

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Walking along the Marsh discovery trail, Richard DeKorte Park, NJ, listening to Ayub Ogada on the Nyatiti Lyre, singing a traditional Dholuo (the language of the Luo people of Western Kenya. )  composition, ‘Kothbiro’,  which speaks about the coming  rain.