- One day you will stop, Like a child someday does. The foamy pour, the steady drip Your resolve will tighten, and with it, The leaky faucet. But not today, darling baby, Today, do cry away. - All Rights Reserved. Kira Mungai, 2023.

a sonnet — Within the bluest eye of the beholder, How I wonder up, above a star so high, About an older twinkling, drinking gourd Skies over the marvelous, grand gravel: Why is this soil bad for certain kinds of flowers? Having made sweet outta being concrete built, Potted-snipped, replanted an’ plucked. That type of pretty’ll soon be whacked— the nectar-center sucked. ‘So no mo’ don’t grow, y’know?’

Crane breaks the surface, Ripples spread from the center, Stillness as always. By: Kai Nguyen, aka. Kai Heart

It’s always greener after the Nairobi rainy season. The waters create red rivers that give life, flood roads and trickle down the foreheads below. There’s a look to lushness. This lushness, a look which visually permeates and communicates nourishment, that a thing is well-cared for. It gives not only a…

To quantify a thousand million Is to disqualify the infinitesimal Odds that even a billion Is in actuality ‘dis small Compared to your vermillion Cupid bows. An angel angled arrowhead ‘pon ya triangle traded nose. We ‘dis close, warm winds sail my dowry in dhows. - Heavenly neon illuminates a trillion Little chameleon cells blent Together tough tuffs of chiffon On my chest, an’ scraps of ribbon, lace, rayon

Imagine my ennui, Sick of sneezing, sniffing, Spritzing, blitzing bottles In yet another perfumery. - My friends favorite: French Scents which lasts all night. Atomizer nozzle chants: Up-down-up-down-up. A quick release decants, And just as fast recants. Gag (gag-gag). - Pray, this is the spray, To stick ‘n stay all day. Base, middle, top, trinity. Head up, a misty peck Grazes down-neck, A mazing trace.

Injured, inflamed. In color, In French, a button, Int- Red bead Weep Amber fluid. Hopefully, no blood Builds back. Drop a brick, Layer over layer. Trust the dermis To support a vulnerable Epidermis. Cement hope, bind Top t-to — top— pop, Hodge on podge. Each cell of you Constructs Scars like Mars Bars by next noon so Soon, a dot is it, Love, a picked zit. - All Rights Reserved. Kira Mungai, 2022.

I wish to never feel again, if this is what feeling is, Pray, the neutrality of death is kinder than this. Is being human, Being hardened hurt? Trudging firmly on, like nothing never happens. Always seeing bitty shapes, When there’s none to see. - “Why gouge tear troughs dry?” — To try to see silver-black squares, A kaleidoscope, Sway-swishes. “Why? Is this how dying feels like?” Scales, fishes, starry dark spectacles,

Contort. Cherry knots. Searing shots, Syrupy. Very hot! The lot retort: “We are not taught to be.” Pillars of sugar In a snow of salt. - All Rights Reserved. Kira Mungai, 2022.