To Paint A Picture With a Pencil

Hi Everyone. Just wanted to tell you that I am still alive and doing very well. I have been communicating through the internet a lot less frequently because I am busy in Machakos when I am not at school for class and soccer. I am becoming consumed with Exodus and I guess I have the title "Assistant Project Coordinator." Probably my first title EVER. I'll be moving to Exodus in about one month, where I'll spend most of the remainder of my time in here in Kenya (which comes to a close on JULY 17TH). I'm learning so much about non-profits and working with orphans. Right now we are working on getting enough beds for the kids, textbooks, and reading books. Here's a poem I wrote a while back. I'm not sure if it's done yet. Let me know what you think...


Painting A Picture With a Pencil

To craft a picture of reality through words
Seems impossible.
Refugees and IDPs, Mau Forest trees,
AIDS orphans, polygamy, corruption,
And poverty in its most absolute manifestation.
Diction fails truth.
Nimeongea, nimeandika, but umesikia kweli?
(I’ve talked, I’ve written, but have you really heard?)

To turn a blank page into a three dimensional exhibit
Seems impossible.
Did the belly bulge into the vision at the mention starvation?
Was rust seizing the house of corrugated metal sheets?
Did dust cloud the page’s emptiness at the mention of drought?
Was odor of burning trash real like a scratch-and-sniff?
Words cannot draw reality
As lead cannot speak colors.