PROFILING SHEILA OKONGO OMARE NYANDUAKI (KENYA) #BABISHAI2015 SHORTLIST

Nyanduaki Sheila lives and works in Nairobi, Kenya. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Economics and Statistics from Kenyatta University, and has a great love for words, music, unconventional furniture and open front sweaters. In her early years she wrote book reviews for Young Nation Magazine and in 2005 and 2008 was among the national winners in the Scenarios from Africa Contest. In 2010, Sheila participated in the Young Writers' project-Nairobi,  an experience that reaffirmed her as a writer. On poetry, she says, 'I'm mostly drawn to poetry that is simple and that speaks delicately as well as honestly about the human condition.' Understandably so, she cites two of her favourite poems as  I know a man by Yehuda Amichai and I taught myself to live simply by Anna Akhmatova. On being included in the BNP 2015 shortlist, she says, 'it is an exciting journey that I'm on. It really is!'

Her shortlisted poem is here:

The Ghost of Jevanjee by Nyanduaki Okongo  Omare (Kenya)

You knew he would visit you,

sitting on the concrete bench, alone, pretending to be immersed in an old book

He greets your silence like an old friend

and stays there.

He will bother to describe the trees to you

each one of them

points at the shrubs by your feet and say- choose the one that speaks to you most and I'll give you its  name.

The sun will burn your back for attention

 the ants will pilgrimage up your skin like hungry hands

but you will do nothing about it.

He will tell you this- when the imminent rain comes, don't run away from it

allow it to wash your shadow clean

until it no longer darkens the ground above you.

And that even there,

in the midst of  love oaths

buried earthworms

hands pressed together in worry

planned sabbaticals

eagles' droppings

'I am the bread of life' sermons

thieves with no faces

memories of sex

great jokes told with closed mouths

smooth stones and potted flowers.

Even there,

you will find two friends:

Wrath, which burns but is sweeter

and Mercy, which suffocates but is lighter.

Choose one,

and it will give you your name.

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