"The Pink Concern" - A Poem by Carol Njoki

THE PINK CONCERN Always yearning to see you Always coming across other beauties on the way But my visit is never complete Without you The pink beauties Carpeting the lakes Don’t you amaze me? Those legs, the long necks.... aaaah! That play among you That dance That sieving beak That carefully selects your food That though not visible to me Determines your pink colour Determines your each day of life Determines your moment on earth Wonderfully made To withstand that I regard as harsh water To follow your biological instinct That directs you to your Other pink beauties To your source of food To your pink maternity Amazed …. That when you want to bring forth The next pink generation You make that sacrificial Long flight to Lake Natron The only pink maternity For the rest of the East African Pink beauties Amazed…. That what I regard as harsh Is the ideal for you To raise your next pink generation Eventually colouring the soda lakes With that pink distinct colour Shocked…. That your pink bank – The Natron For many generations May be no more WHY? In your pink maternity Lies the soda gold Eyed for human wealth But stored just an inch beneath Your delicate and only birth place Concerned….. That the human interest in your maternity – The Natron Will remove your pink colour Even where I used to find you Concerned….. That this will not just remain A Tanzanian story But an East African disaster For it is in Natron, Only Natron! That breeds our Flamingos Will breed no more pink But instead breed more human wealth At the expense of your sensitivity and fragility Worried.... That each time I see you flying Up in the sky Heading to the Natron You might come back to Kenya But minus your next pink generation Until your are eventually wiped out I want to endlessly see and be met By thy pink beauty on our lakes As your beauty spreads across borders The flying ambassadors who unite us Will I watch and wait To listen when your story becomes another tale That whenever I want to see and be met by your beauty I have to refer to the books and peoples memories? OR .... Will I be the pink ambassador? BY: CAROLINE NJOKI Njokizimmer@yahoo.com