Magna Tales

10/06/2026

08/02/2026

A Ballad To Victoria

You of course will no doubt have to have seen it to believe it. But let me labor to tell you of a damsel called Victoria. I pined for her immediately my eyes caught sight of her. I didn't know what it was about her. That was eons ago, yes. Was it her elegance, or the deftness of her craft? I set out to know.
Plieing her trade operating juicers, she ran a juice bar right at the entrance of a big store so that one would never miss it. It was a novel concept then. Out of sheer curiosity I made a detour into her premise. That is how I came to be numbered among her patrons. In her catalogue of offerings were quite some serious distractions. But I do not want you to be unaware that of all distractions in that premise of whatever kind, chief among them was Victoria, the centerpiece of it all. Her guests whiled their time away glancing furtively in her direction as if looking for answers to some piercing pressing questions. This distraction was no trivial matter as many a guest would lose and forget all about the shopping assignment in the adjacent store that they had set out for in the first place and instead, end up lounging in her parlor sampling all the little wonders she had crafted by hand: some delectable, some not so much. Most left the bar more puzzled than when they first came in.
But that was only one part of the problem. Why ? Victoria is irresistible. Lanky and fair, adorned in such comely light, she has the biggest, brownest, brightest most gentle eyes ever. The warmest smile there is. She would go about talking to her patrons like a curator in an art gallery. Explaining every creation with such striking detail. I knew they were all entranced. Some, I presume dared to admit what was really going on.
It is against this backdrop that I felt the treacherous compulsion to strike up a conversation with her, however silly it might be. For the tribe , I wasn't going to fail. That was my resolve. So I ventured to inquire about some craft cocktail featuring the beet root, fascinated by its bloody look, " It requires an acquired taste" she retorted. " It tastes like soil", she warned. I have no recollection whatsoever what the rest of the conversation was all about frankly, but her smile as she answered me got craven onto my psyche like an enduring statue. As I left her premise that day I had added onto my many problems one more problem.
Fifteen odd years later, one fateful day ,in the witness of the noon day light I ran into Victoria quite suddenly. I called out her name. She stopped. Her big, brown eyes came alive. "Do you remember me?" I asked.

19/11/2025

Shadow

literary magazine

27/10/2025

27/10/2025

Life has many many variables. At times, events pan out differently than we anticipated and at other times they unfold exactly as we want them to. Except that the only constant that abides through all life’s threads is uncertainty itself.
For all the advancements men have forged through all civilizations from the dawn of time: medicine, travel, space exploration, energy and climatology, the uncertainty of the present and of the morrow still lingers.
In this matrix of uncertainty a paradox yet does emerge which is the certitude of death.The death of life, all life. Though we bear this truth as at once empirically verifiable, we are nonetheless uncertain of when the bell shall toll for each one of us.
This uncertainty is unsettling in all possible ways. Man knows the exact estimate of time, down to the minute,it will take for him to travel from Earth to Mars in whatever space craft . Man can predict with certainty the formation of cataclysmic climate systems, locate planetary positions and movements through calculations of physics. Man knows how to tame the most ferocious of beasts, numb the potency of the venom of serpents and so on.
All the accumulation of knowledge from different spheres and power over nature has not brought man any sense of comfort or certainty of the sum of his days on earth. This uncertainty stalks man’s best endeavors with a kind of lameness that confounds him from a purely social learning perspective.
Matters are infinitely compounded by the fact that man knows not at what point in life his knees will give in, his heart get swollen and enlarged. At what point will his mental acuity be afflicted with impairment. When will his body cells run riot and begin malformation and abnormal growth.
The certitude of these kinds of knowledges ought to commend to men rather naturally owing to the fact that the present civilization is at the apogee of it’s advancement. Arguably, at the highest point ever since the dawn of time and should therefore be safely in man’s belt. But it is not. At least not yet. It seems ever more likely now than ever that it will remain elusive for the simple but unflattering reason that it is quite simply outside the province of man’s power to wield this kind of knowledge no matter how intently we gaze into the stars. For to have prior knowledge of these kinds of events is to quite literally be all knowing. The Universe has withheld it’s imprimatur.
So, shall man’s story be anticlimactic? That for all his conquests , for all his power, for all his advancement and forays to outter space, man knows very little about himself and because of his ironic dearth of knowledge and understanding he simply won’t be able to surmount ultimate uncertainty. The uncertainty about who he is and of his times here on earth.
In this very respect man overwhelmingly not only exemplifies but espouses fatalism a surrender to what will be will be sort of pragmatism. Some of course reject the inevitability of fate and take matters into their own hands as if to escape the matrix. But in doing so, they don’t succeed in vanquishing the uncertainty and hopelessness that they seek to flee from but instead only amplify and affirm it .
Magna Tales.

24/10/2025

Shout out to my newest followers! Excited to have you onboard! Emmanuel Gona, Mark Karime, Millicent Okweya, Wambua Mutiso, Joseph Murunga, Arting Petyr, WEE ZHOMBIE 󱢏 Sheilah Chepchumba, Said Chiwaya, Mwatela Jembe, Chip Chop, Joel Ragwang, Joseph Kariuki Mbugua, Ray Vannie, Jasto Spairo, Pesa Pump, Sam Hiroki, Gladys Maina, Thee Sickdoctor, Daktari Rama, Daktari Komesha, Isa Musa

10/10/2025

We just got here. We got to go!!

I reckon that you should speak to her like you just got to town and have to go. Men in most cases typically speak in straight lines like builders wanting to create structures. They also aim and sho…

10/10/2025

We just got here and we got to go.

I reckon that you should speak to her like you just got to town and have to go. Men in most cases typically speak in straight lines like builders wanting to create structures. They also aim and sho…