These were the poems which were recited during POETRY NIGHT held on Friday, 22 February 2013 at Kitwe Little Theatre. It was one of the most well attended.
GIVE ME ROMANCE EVERY TIME
by Fiona Davidson and recited by Lydia Mhango
Maybe a little romance is needed
Lightening our days in all this grey
To place a smile on our faces
You can’t have too much romance
In a life that’s filled with sadness
Making us laugh with pleasure
Give me romance to dazzle me!
To make my heart sing out loud!
And make me feel I’m alive!
Bring on the romance to me
It’s welcome in a soul of tears
Appreciated from this coldness
Give me romantic words and deeds
So pleasing to my eyes and ears
Make me happy for a little while
Give me romance every time
To make me blush and smile
Instead of all these teasing words
LAMENTATIONS OF A GIRL CHILD
Written by Richard Likumba and recited by Pamela Hojane
I am just a just a child
My dreams not yet realized.
My purity is not a cure
of your loins so impure.
I am just a child, verily pure and mild.
I do have a mind,
That too does do dream
A future that is not so grim.
I am just a child
With innocence as my shield.
Fragile is my immunity,
Which you attack with impunity.
I believed that that you would heal the bruises of my fall
But you hurt me with such force
My legs you spread apart
Ignoring how it hurt.
I am just a child.
I trusted that all men are fathers
But now I think they are bastards.
My Dad whom I loved
I now fear to hold,
Because I am just a child.
I used to have bread and tea
But now I survive on pills.
I used to dance and laugh
But now I just sleep and cough.
The scars inflicted on me,
Painful forever they shall remain
A reminder of my constant shame
Which you cannot even imagine.
If I were not but a child
All the bad men I would incarcerate
Into a jail so deep,
Whose keys I would incinerate
In a furnace so hot.
At night I dread to sleep,
Because my dreams are a nightmare.
I see my defiler into my bed creep.
I pray that someone should care,
For me a mere child.
Who shall protect me?
From this monster so vile.
Who shall be my defender?
Against this defiling monster,
Where shall I run to?
To be safe as a child.
I ask you the judges
To defend my rights to a safe and happy childhood
I plead with you the police to show no mercy
To these monsters who don’t deserve to be called human beings.
I AM JUST A CHILD!
IAM JUST CHILD !
A MERE GIRL CHILD !
I AM JUST YOUR CHILD !
TELEPHONE CONVERSATION
by Wole Soyinka – Read by Paul Phillips
The price seemed reasonable, location
Indifferent. The landlady swore she lived
Off premises. Nothing remained
But self-confession. ‘Madam,’ I warned,
‘I hate a wasted journey-I am African.’
Silence. Silenced transmission of
Pressurized good-breeding. Voice, when it came
Lipstick coated, long gold-rolled
Cigarette-holder piped. Caught I was, foully.
‘HOW DARK?’ . . . I had not misheard . . . “ARE YOU LIGHT
OR VERY DARK?’ Button B. Button A. Stench
Of rancid breath of public hide and speak.
Red booth. Red pillar-box. Red double-tiered
Omnibus squelching tar. It was real! Shamed
By ill-mannered silence, surrender
Pushed dumbfounded to beg simplification.
Considerate she was, varying the emphasis-
‘ARE YOU DARK? OR VERY LIGHT?’ Revelation came.
‘You mean-like plain or milk chocolate?’
Her assent was clinical, crushing in its light
Impersonality. Rapidly, wave-length adjusted,
I chose. ‘West African sepia’ – and as afterthought,
‘Down in my passport.’ Silence for spectroscopic
Flight of fancy, till truthfulness clanged her accent
Hard on the mouthpiece. ‘WHAT”S THAT?’ conceding
‘DON’T KNOW WHAT THAT IS.’ ‘Like brunette.’
THAT’S DARK, ISN”T IT?’ ‘Not altogether
Facially, I am brunette, but madam, you should see
The rest of me. Palm of my hand, soles of my feet
Are a peroxide blonde. Friction, caused –
Foolishly madam-by sitting down, has turned
My bottom raven black-One moment madam!’ – sensing
Her receiver rearing on the thunderclap
About my ears – ‘Madam,’ I pleaded, ‘wouldn’t you rather
See for yourself?’
THE STATUE I SEE
Written by John Kapesa and read by the District Commissioner – Kitwe Mr Elias Kamanga
What a heart the designer had
That which resembled hard
A filial woman
Not Norman
She was nude as at birth
While true she was giving birth
Her baby dark and head egg shell
What with no hell
She bore the third
With nothing, no ration, with a thud
Her nude
Resembled models nuke
Yet her desire
Her leisure
Concealed the hard fact
The truth she’s never find
Past the graveside she has been
To school she returned having been
With the designer’s hand
This was a manifest brand
Of the statue that stand bent
By Shoprite though sent
By the City father Council
In every Municipal Council
PREGNANT MIND
by John Kapesa and recited by Lifasi Mukonda
There is a time when time flies
Along where my mind wildly meanders
With the scent of weird sounds I hear
The sweet echoes of music
As the aroma of restaurants nourishes my appetite
And erotic love dances in my mind
While pregnant ideas give birth
The birth of imagination and thought;
To steal from the bank or elope with someone
To commit adultery or marry a third
To turn back under stress
There is a time when time is slow
Time never seem to move at all
Each thing I touch turns to stone
Each idea turns sour
There is a time when time never moves
Then I wake up to reality
To a wet ground, soiled by milky rain
A chocking smell that isn’t milk
There is a time when lovers watch me
To find me excruciatingly lovable
A kind heart from which evaporates coy words
And a loving talk
All just find me dreaming
FAITH
Written and recited by Barnabas Kasongo Kanjela
In the beginning
There was no there
Because it was not there
And do not argue because you were not there
Then there was there
And everything was there
We are now in there
Because there is now there
The there that was not there.
ROSES, KISSES AND CHOCOLATES VIII
By Kazungo Bwalya
I am this man
How cleaver of me to see the love beyond
Beyond Roses, Kisses and Chocolates
I came to tame and claim the love you have
Did not tell you true
That love is blind
But not to my eye
More than I see you
You in the garden of beauty
And looking beautiful
Just like Roses, Kisses and Chocolates
I am this man
The world told me there was no garden
As beautiful as that which grows roses
Yet I found you in this garden
The garden full of sweet Roses, Kisses and Chocolates
I am this man
This man
Just full of Roses, Kisses and Chocolates
Give me the me in me
Let me see the you in me
To appreciate the beauty and sweetness
Beauty like that of Roses, Kisses and Chocolates
It’s just all about Roses, Kisses and Chocolates.
LOVE ME TO SLEEP
Written and recited by Webster Kamaloni
Long time you had gone
Long nights I could feel you
But you were nowhere in sight
I used to lie awake and pray for morning to come
It seems like years before my tears dried in the sum
Cause you had gone
You left me crying in the rain and all I knew I was all alone
Without the love to make me strong
And my dreams were all shattered because you had gone.
So love me to sleep tonight
Kiss away the pain of those memories one by one
Show me the river still runs strong and deep
Tonight my love, love me to sleep
Tears fell from my eyes
Just like the rain droops from the sky
You found another
You know I was so in love with you
And our skies were always blue
But you had gone.
So show me, we can’t let it go now
Here in my arms you’ve got a perfect place to hide
If you’ve got doubts, why don’t you let the night decide?
Just let it ride
And Love me to sleep.
_______________________