Somehow, Someday.....

We will meet again someday to compare scars
And the hatred we harbour for those we love.
We will compare suicide notes beneath the stars
And maybe discover why we are still alive.
What is an oasis without a desert? It's a puddle.
Believe we will meet again, someday, someplace,
Here or far, drink, smoke, laugh fuck fuck cuddle,
Clothe you in my nakedness twin child of solace.
Born of similar stripes, once only the night knew
Our true shades, then we had, for a while, each other
And we learnt the skies of night can be blue too.
Goodbye....for now, oh sweet gift of this chapter.
Remember my lips and the passion in their kiss
Until we meet there where there is no darkness.

By Philani Amadeus Nyoni (Zimbabwe)

photocredits: www.google.com

broke lover...

I don't want to give you roses
Because although they are beautiful
Roses have thorns
And those thorns might remind you that love hurts

I don't want to buy you chocolate
For although it is very sweet
Too much of it might make you sick
And that sickness can be like us if we over do it

I don't want to give you silver or gold
As shiney as they may be
Even they have to be polished when they loose their shine
So they might remind you of the persona we create once we're together

I don't want to give you diamonds
For although they say their forever
Their value is one not to depended upon
And that might hint to you that one day you will not be needed

I don't want to buy you designer apparel
Even though they might keep you trendy and with times
But even trends are left for new ones
And that might be a blow to show you I can find a new lover

I don't want to get you anything
Not because I want to be a broke lover
But because to a broke brother
Only his woman means the world to him..



By  Leslie Erl Magapa (Botswana)

Picture credits; www.google.com

The missing word in your vocabulary

You told me to hate them

They captured our forefathers, you said
And took away our women, beautiful women
You emphasise on beauty as if you knew them
And the cattle, a man's worth, you said

You said they annihilated us
Robbed us of a land that was rightfully ours
You said, hate them. They are pigs
They deserve not your affection
You said, and I almost listened

You washed our brains when we were young
Using big words like Genocide, Massacre
Slavery, Crimes to humanity
But there was a word missing in your vocabulary

Love.

Peace.

Forgiveness.

Co-existance

You did not teach me that
I learnt it when I drank from the same gourd
With he that you taught me to hate
When I spoke a different language
When I learnt a new culture
I learnt this new word

Love

When you sent me to learn their ways
To hate them, yet steal their machinations
Life taught me another word

Forgiveness

When all the hatred you planted in me
Clouded my ability to live with others
A new sun shone on me

Co-existance

You did not tell me this
That your vocabulary needed updating
That he who never travels
Always claims his mother cooks best
This, and more
You did not teach me
While you were busy planting hatred
In my fragile mind

Pardon Gwara, (Zimbabwe)

Picture credits: 

https://www.google.co.zw

Write me our story...

Turn this page

And continue with the story of my life

Remember, memories are on replay

It’s a default setting

Leave behind the smiles that you didn’t cause

Or the laughter you didn’t induce

Those are the pages when the pen was not in your hand

Write us like this:

Start from the moment you kissed me

And narrate the passion that was in our hearts

And this mutual feeling we hope to hold long enough

When the only pain we would want to feel

Is death as it parts us

Say to the world;

From this page on

You are the reason why I smile, that you are an

An edification of my incomplete being

Stand on top of the roofs, if you may

And scribble the countless moments

We spend looking into each other’s eyes

That when time tries

These memories should bring us home

Hold me like a lantern in the darkest night

In will illuminate for you as you write us down

So our story can be read by generations to come

To hold it close to their hearts

For we will be the modern Romeo and Juliet

For love would have guided us home

Write in this our script

How the perfectness of our imperfections

Completes us in words dictionaries cannot explain

Say our love was so hot it burned the sun

That even when demons tried to break it

Their fate met them at its gate

Tell this to generations to come

That when love is this pure and strong

Sometimes you feel you have seen God’s face

So, turn this page

And scribble the story of us

Pardon Gwara (Zimbabwe)
Picture courtesy of www.google.com

I DID IT ALL FOR YOU

What is it that I didn’t do for you
Didn’t I give respect and honor
Wasn’t I like the women of old
Who adorned themselves not in braided hair or jewelery
But I adorned myself with a quiet and gentle spirit

It was not of love being blind 
It was not stupidity that I endured it all
Never my fault that I was naïve
I possessed hope that you would change
I carried thy weaknesses in pure love

But in response you took my heart
Crushed it for I was of little strength
For once you didn’t care I was also human
That I also needed to be loved
That all I ever wanted in return was just your love
In the summers and winters of life
That was to keep us going

But now am packing my heart
You found in a broken state but never cared
It would have been bleeding at such a time
But amazingly
The Lord knoweth well thus He went ahead of time
To stand in a strategic position that
Even when am exiting your life
It is in a preserved state
He made me untouchable

Because I am His daughter you see
I will smile at the morning to be birthed out for the night past
For it bring with it abundant joy
Behold a new and better future has been set.
Thank you for the lessons learnt
Both good and bad
For unto them the Lord loves
It shall all work together for my profiteering

By Charity Mbundinga (Zimbabwe)

THE GOLD THAT NEVER CAME FROM THE GROUND

Dreams torn asunder by fate,
an expedition that brought tears
instead
of smiles.
We can hear you screaming from the
pit,
we can see you begging for mercy
asking God to reverse the horrible
scene.
We can see you holding on each other
tight
saying out prayers to the Gods in
unison
We can hear the echo of your final
scream
for help
before death crept on you .

The children weeped continously,
the women cried the loudest
and even men could not hide the tears
triggered by the memories of a warrior
who died a horrible death.
It is to you the begining
of a life we dread of
and to us a loss that can never be
compansated.

Some fainted,
some went mad for a while in
disbelief.
Some found it difficulty to believe
until their calls were answered by a
total
stranger
with a melancholous voice confirming
to
the horrible news;
'I am sorry the owner is no more
he got trapped in a mine.'

(may their souls rest in peace)

By Edward Dzonze (Zimbabwe)

Picture source: Lisa Kristine: Photos that bear witness to modern slavery

Pansiwaa...

A goddess who struts in rocking beads

Ah! So do you think the lizard prostrates for nothing?

My Nubian queen of cinnamon delight, fleshy as a baobab

Face of a harvest moon, dispersing stars to an early sleep

Grace of the gazelle, floating kapok in the Harmattan Winds!

Pansiwaa, with her lips of zebra stripes, inviting like the froth

of African palm wine

Pansiwaa, her eyes are of the panther’s, pushing darkness

into a broad daylight

But for your warmth

I have missed in this wilderness of lashing coldness

Run my fingers through your fronds of jet black dreads

And have my sorrows melted in the grove of your shrine

I’ve sailed the seven seas, and felt its turbulent waves against my skin

This blackness which you nourished with your tender hands of shea-butter

Are now tough like the rhino’s

That only your Congo could dissolve

So long my soul has been tramped, muddied in the waters

of lords who never knew me a Negus

A Prince, who once surveyed my Savannahs of anthills and darting impalas,

Of crouching leopards who felt the sharpness of the hunter’s spear

But into thy coastal arms I return, through Elmina’s ”gate of yes return”

Thy radiant smile, my bearing found

Thy coconut water my thirst quenched

And in thy gentle breeze a moment restored!

Adjei  Agyei-Baah  (Ghana) 

Picture source: www.facebook.com/jadiliafrika

Revelation

The soft flow of your steps,
caressing each eye,
that catches a glimpse of how you lift your feet,
there’s a feel that compels one to stand, stare and sigh,
your smile brushing every word ,magnifying tunnels to ones greeting.

Revealing every lie,
those eyes that ties,
tunnels to portals of hearts,
rebuking evil intentions to seek redemption,
admiration is vital to your eyely command,
lady on unseasoned vision,
beauty isn’t modified with a gruelling glance.
Yours is as simple as Gods revelation.

By Napo Robert Mokoena (South Africa) 

Picture source: www.facebook.com/jadiliafrika

ON MOTHERS' DAY

Here is to the breasts
my father fondled with affection
before becoming the only source of
food I knew.

Here is to the lips
that gave me the first kiss,
the same lips that taught me to say
when I want to pee.
Here is to the hip
that gave me a sure grip
while strapped tight on her back.

Here is to the woman
who endured the labour pains
for me to breath this air and have
blood flowing. in my veins.

Here is to a mother
who chose not to abort
so that we can be living testimonies of
her unfailing love.
Here is to you
on a mothers' day.


By Edward Dzonze (Zimbabwe)

Picture source: www.facebook.com/jadiliafrika

Upon a FRIEND

Upon a friend you can depend,

And this has always been the trend,

From ancient times to modern day,

A friend will always find a way.

By lending hands and being there,

A friend can show you that they care,

And friends always know what to do,

To help you out and pull you through.

So always celebrate your pals,

And whether they be guys or gals,

Just treasure them forever more,

For they're the people you adore.

By Adedayo Adeyemi Agarau (Nigeria)

Picture source; http://eatingrichly.com/06/grief-and-joy/attachment/00001957/

show me the differences

Show me the thin membrane
Between love and hate
Teach me how to cross it
And maybe stay on one side
And never on the hating

Draw for me the line
That seperates insanity and sanity
So i could limit thyself
In norms acceptable to your sanity
And cease to be the odd one out

Show me the difference
Between a smile and a frown
So i will smile for you
In my own happy frown

Teach me the small things of life
When i grow big
I will hold them in my heart
And know the difference
Between pain and pleasure
Love and hurt
And madness and creativity…

By Pardon Gwara  (Zimbabwe)

Picture source: www.google.com

She wrote me a poem.

I copied it in my mind, 
and pasted it in my heart. 
I should have read 
the subliminal irony in it.
And not the surface words
The sweet nothings
That left me love diabetic

She wrote me a poem
And i kept it in my heart
Took to heart the words
The meaning my mind could fathom
If they could be reversed
I will not read again

She wrote me a poem
Painted my life with a colour so bright
I lost my sight
Mabye it was the night
Or with her i lost all my might

She wrote me a poem,
In pencil.
Her hand held an eraser
To clean the words i so eagerly believed

By Pardon Gwara (Zimbabwe)