Lydia Mhango - kitweonline

This week we have poems by Leonard Koloko, Richard Likumba,Van Wyck Mumba and Barney Kanjela.

Shackles and Chains
Leonard Koloko

Shackles an’ chains
Footprints an’ blood trails
All trail behind ebony paces.

Tears an’ sweat
Rivulets of blood
All stain ebony faces.

Weeping an’ wailing
Grumbling an’ groaning
All haunt ebony places

We are tired and tried
Pocked an’ yoked
Just for belonging to ebony races.

Recoiling into Myself
Lameck Keya Zingano
Read by Lydia Mhango

Some things must be left unsaid
Becoming snail-like in a shell of silence offers safety
Emotions and thoughts belonging to you
Cannot be shared unless
A chord of understanding is sensed
Shaking your shell-silence.

We stay in our protective cover
Longing to find a way to communicate
Beyond the hard, self-built wall
Deep within lies our spirit-knowledge
Of what must be shared and said.

Trust and intuition pull us from the shell
To enter a time and space
Of revealing
Of union
Of sharing….

Nostalgia
Richard Likumba

A Straw Blown by the wind
Flies where the wind blows.
Perchance it finds its own kind
And with the flow there it goes.

Enroute it gathers dust
And the dew forms a crust.
Which around the core remains encrust.
Unchanged it remains we trust.

As fore the going there unchartered
Carries with it, change unfettered
Like vintage wine well cultured
Dares all that remains flattered

Memories of before
Remain the drive
That pokes the sore
Keeping me yet alive.

Nostalgia !

IF…

Van Wyck Mumba

IF I WALK ALONE IN THE NIGHT
WITH A TORCH IN HAND FULL OF LIGHT
CAN YOU SAY AM WISE?
OR RATHER SAY OTHERWISE
IF I PREACHED AMONG SINNERS
CAN YOU SAY AM NO SINNER
OR RATHER SAY AM A BEGINNER
IN THE WORD
BUT IS IT SHARP LIKE A SWORD?
IF I KICK YOU IN THE BACK
DOES IT MEAN AM A FOOTBALLER?
IF I SPEAK OUT
DOES IT MEAN AM A POLITICIAN?
IF I FIX YOU A BEER
DOES IT MEAN AM A TECHNICIAN?
IF YOU DENY MY BEER
THEN YOU MUST BE IN OPPOSITION
IF I RESIGNED TODAY
WILL YOU TAKE MY POSITION?
IF YOU ARE MADE KING
WILL YOU WEAR A RING?
IF YOU ARE VOTED AS PRESIDENT
WILL YOU CHANGE THE CONSTITUTION
IF YOU ARE MARRIED TODAY
WILL YOU CELEBRATE ALL DAY?
IF WE ARE ATTACKED TODAY
WILL YOU DEFEND THE NATION?
ALAS!  ANSWER MY NEXT QUESTION
IF A TORTOISE HAS NO SHELL
DOES IT MEAN IT IS NAKED?

Barney Kanjela:

Something is intangible
When amiss the heart misses beats
Money can devalue
Divorces aplenty

But something is always there
When I am down it manifests
It manifests as and when I am in need.

When I go to sleep, it leaves me alone
And I understand
In my dream it comes back
And we do things together.

Man and woman have taken it for granted
But always sob and weep when it goes
And pray for its manifest
But abuse it when it goes

Even in death this something is there
FRIENDSHIP