From Song of Ocol
In this poem, the narrator is addressing a comrade and remembering a night of celebration they shared together. The narrator calls the night "uhuru" and describes how everyone danced to the drums and saluted their national flag. The narrator then goes in to ask if the comrade also had unrealistic expectations the morning after, using the metaphor of tree leaves turning to money to describe this.
The Horn of My love
The narrator of this poem mourns her lover, separated from her by distance. She is trying to find him, asking others if they have heard him blow his horn so they can point her in the right direction. She admonishes poverty and the cattle shortage for separating her from her love and ruining her man.
My Husband’s Tongue Is Bitter
In this poem, a narrator describes suffering the abuses of her husband. She claims to be abused by her husband and his family in their English language while they berate her for being black, calling all black people primitive, ignorant, poor, and diseased. She claims he has fallen in love with a new "modern" girl named Clementine who wears makeup and aspires to look like a white woman. The narrator allows him to pursue this woman, saying that it is an old custom allowing people to have more than one wife, and that the old customs are good.
