About 1886
A young boy is born in the thickness
And darkness
Around the dawn of colonial Enterprise
Western Kenya
His father dies
He goes to stay with an elder sister
For he is but about two
And with his other brother,just two

Around 1914
War breaks out
Deemed a war if the world
Conscripts are needed
To fight on either side
1915
Young man marries
And is conscripted by the British
Hamisi Nabilayi
For that was his name
Having become a Moslem
For his love of beef
Nabilayi for his love
Of things sweet
Is cut off from his wife
To fight in foreign lands

Back home Longino is born
About 1916
To a father abroad
And a mother alone
Barasa was his name
John Longinus alias Longino
For his interaction with the Catholic missionaries
At St Mary's Yala
He becomes a mason
And practices his trade
In the colonial heights
Of the white Highlands
And the schemes of Transnzoia
Through and beyond the colony
Exits the stage
Having played his part
1980

My grandfather
Longino was
.....
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