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.

 _______________________