SONG FOR LOST FRIENDS
Where shall I find you?
Heaven above
Or
Hell below?
Or
No where at all?
I don’t know.
What language shall we speak?
Chewa
Or
Bemba
Or
Some sort of Greek?
Still I don’t know.
What colour
Shall our skins bear?
Yellow
Or
Blue
Or
Simply nothing at all?
I don’t know
In which form
Will I find you?
Tangible
Or
Intangible
Or
Simply a breezing wind?
I don’t know.
When will I find you?
Could be today
Or
Tomorrow
Or
Just any other day
Nobody knows.
Like it or not
We are all lost friends
Strangers without answers
But for sure departed ones
Know better
Because they are already there.
Leonard Koloko
Dedication to Darius Lungu
Prominent Zambian Actor & Adjudicator
___________
FOR DARIUS LUNGU
Who are you?
A painter? No.
A musician? No.
A dancer? No.
You were none of the above and yet you were
You gave vision to the Zambian artistic world through your acting,
Adjudicating and sometimes noisy humour which left us in stitches.
Who are you?
Am Darius Lungu – an actor, radio short story reader
Am Darius Lungu – a theatre adjudicator.
To those that lost at festivals, never say:
Next festival Darius won’t be there, we shall win
You will lose again unless you listened.
To those that won at festivals, always say:
Darius will be there, we shall win
We shall win again.
Yes, I shall be there
I shall be there in
All the word you speak
All the songs you sing
All the dances you dance
I am Darius who was a banker
One morning in 1994, 5.00 a.m.
Darius wake up, late for work.
Oh no, I left work.
Just like that?
Just like that.
To do the things I enjoyed
Am Darius not saying goodbye – but good night.
Fredah Nkonde
Dedication to Darius Lungu
Prominent Zambian Actor & Adjudicator
___________
The Man without a Poem
The man without a poem?
Yes, please, the nigga answered
Am the man without a poem – proud and free
Eroded is my identity – who am I?
What you see is what you get
That’s reality
O – so arrogant – rude
Sarcasm is part of my family tree
Ever so disturbing – nauseating – thought provoking –
And pacifying for a few souls in my speech
Pull me down into your curse
Burnt is your dress
Pace faster than less
In sin is where I’ve been
I found myself – me myself
And I belong to the other side
Testing the rescue team
Stuck-busy sexting in this fleeting dream
Blessed but believe you me
Mine is the team within reach
Why I laugh at you
Preach – preach
What do you do?
George Howard Musonda
__________
CONFESSIONS
These are my confessions
I know you’re probably thinking of Usher
But duplicity has gone wild, ask the Tiger
I made an oath to a lady of integrity
A beauty defined by a promise of eternity
A life after, a life of felicity
But I chose to live for the moment
So I treated her with a dose of iniquity
Behind her back, I danced and glowed in the shadows
Making love to the darkness
Only now do I feel hollow
Forgive the pain on my poker face
It’s not a joke but the truth hurts
It’s a shame I come to you full on naked
I’m dressed in linen but I bet you could see through to my dirt.
The commandments I broke and the thoughts I regret
I was like a student, in search of his masters
But the degree of my deception grew with each semester
I look at heaven in high skies
I can’t get through with my trespass
I transgress off-road, lost in the wilderness
I stand here, telling you my blunders
My faults and mistake, in truth I am a disaster
Please don’t turn a blind eye like Stevie Wonder
Forgive me Lord, for I am a sinner.
Mwanagwa Zombe
Talent Yapa Zed participant
_________
UNTITLED
The roots of my heart entwine with substance that corners my mind.
Indeed, where is fancy bred,
In the heart or in the head?
Let it so like swans take flight
To soar, pure and white in sight
For beauty my knees have knelt
For fain smiles my soul thus melt
For more than beat, my heart felt.
With gazing fed; and fancy dies
As my fortune, in casket rides
For desire and oath move by side.
As beauty of sunsets view
And freshness of morning dew
So arise a darkened hue
Though splendour still; desire untrue
For we were like fire
A mistress and her sire
We danced, twisted and grew as one
Embraced our presence like heroes won
As time stops in that moment of heat
When experience evolves into a memory.
Like a fading trail of candles glow
For all fairness that love does bestow
Flames die when coast winds blow.
Alas, rises o’acrid, to steal life’s breath from my though.
Mwanagwa Zombe
Talent Yapa Zed participant
__________
Lydia Mhango
_____________
