Read the following poem and then answer the questions that follow.

Should I
Or should I not
Take the oath to love
For ever
 
This person I know little about?
Does she love me?
 
Or my car
Or my future
Which I know little about?
 
Will she continue to love me?
When the future she saw in me
Crumbles and fades into nothing
Leaving the naked me
To love without hope?
 
Will that smile she wears
Last through the hazards to come
When fate strikes
Across the dreams of tomorrow?
 
Like the clever passenger in a faulty plane,
Wear her life jacket
And jump out to save her life
Leaving me crush into the unknown?
 
What magic can I use?
To see what lies beneath
Her angel face and well-knit hair
To see her hopes and dreams
Before I take an oath
To love forever?
 
We are both wise chess players
She makes a move
I make a move
And we trap each other in our secret dreams
Hoping to win against each other
~ Everett Standa
​

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​From a distance
Fearful of inching any further,
A cold sweat trickled rivulets,
Making me shiver at noon.
Undaring to approach the form
 
It was over in minutes,
The necessities of execution availed,
The firestone tyre,
Petrol in blackened tin,
And ignites in numerous hands
Each participant ready and anxious,
To set the man a flame.
 
As the smouldering form blackened,
Smell of sizzling flesh filling in the air
Piercing the nostrils,
And choking me breathless,
I watched in wonder,
Witness to an unwritten law.
 
As the crowd dispersed,
The haggling and bargaining resumed,
Buying, selling and cheating,
As men in uniform arrived,
Bearing away the charred remains

​I put on a clean shirt
And go to work
Which of us
Which of us will come back?
Four and twenty moons
Not seeing women
Not seeing my hand
Which of us
Which of us will die?

I put on a clean shirt
And go to work my contract
To work far away
I go beyond the mountain 
Into the bush
Where the roads end
And the rivers run dry
Which of us
Which of us will come back?
Which of us
Which of us will die?

​Read the poem below and answer the questions that follow. (20 marks)

You embarrass me…
Mwananchi
Why do you embarrass me with your questions
About the new Mercedes I bought
The large farm I own
The houses, the wives,
An inflated stomach!

Mwananchi
Why do you threaten me with your threats
The threats in your bloodshot eyes
Fixedly pointed at me wherever I go
Like if you are ready
To release the arrow that will deflate me
Into nothingness;
Even the watchmen, the dogs, the police
Are all not enough to protect me
From your increasing shouts to protest
Against my good judgement;

Mwananchi
Have you forgotten how you loved me
And gave me your vote
That I may be your man in parliament?

Now that I have the power
I will mend your confused senses
And keep you in prison
Until you see me as your leader again
And keep those bloodshot eyes away from me

I will charge like an angry lion
And scare you out of your wits
Until like a frightened dog,
You keep your head forever…
 ~Everett M. Standa 

All moving the Lord knows where,
Dressed in suits and tatters,
Bowties, tights, ochred sheets and earrings,
All thinking of things to come,
Africa is in a state of opportunity,
All look for easy chances.
Of self-upliftment or undeserved promotion
That often mirage further and further
Making frustrate
Minds that should be content
It is a time of opportunity-
When one line makes a poet
And a little acquaintance or chance
Rockets one to the highest office
But the peasant, the pillar of the nation,
Has only to cope with prices that shift
Like the waves that rock the ship
Carrying yellow maize to the city.
The employed call out strikes
That only deplete the little funds
That may relieve the peasant-
The elder brother keeps the younger in hunger
At home, if there’s any,
The child plays with an empty bottle,
Cries for more milk
When the cost is daily on the rise
While the incomes remain static
And the higher brackets are daily filled
By youths that will not retire
Within this century.
The child laughs gaily,
Displaying its only four teeth
That show it grows to eat,
Unaware of all that shapes her decade
Adapted from a poem by Joseph G. Mutiga