BACK THEN

In the life we led,

We were fed,

Not with our pockets fat.

We used to feast,

Three meals at least,

The better,

To rejoice forever,

It’s gone-

We mourn.

Tummies filled with air

We do nothing but stare.

With hunger and starvation as substitutes,

We are turned into filthy destitutes,

Dreams are shattered

Lives are battered,

We remember the heyday,

Sigh and able to say,

A great time well spent,

But it was back then.

NIGHT BIRDS

Night draws closer with end day

Where they take over in hunt of prey

Night birds-exhausted they fly not

Parroting, they cry not

Smile a lot, squeaking,

Chattering, glittering

When the lights are more than dim-dark

When we the dogs that bark

Behind bars, try our luck

Not with our catapults loose

Misled is our target we miss,

In agony, them gliding, we can’t resist

Starring, like queens, but we as kings

Of unmeasured wit, defiant

Amused not of their deviance

To wander while others pray, misled

Skinny, blindfolded and lost

For hunger not to satisfy

Rotten flesh, disabled to gratify

Integrity-sweltering, for night birds of prey?

We long for fleshy birds of day.

 

                                                               By Tatenda Mhlanga

 

NAKED: STRIPPED

NAKED: STRIPPED



Were we stripped naked?

To find, them, unshaken,

Laughing in crude fashion.

No boulder, of strength, to cushion,

For I thought out of hand they budged,

To intercept a grudge-they won.

Then reminisce not on my shady history

Yesterday, No, the looming mystery

Tomorrow, falling off the cursed fig tree.

When balancing on rotten branches made me free

To air-scratched and bruised,

Battered and clustered, embarrassed.

Having to find myself less flattered

By his ego, less set to offer

Nothing fresh, only penniless.

Shamefaced, ignoring his own follies

Of trolleys full of lies,

On which platter, silver or gold?

To make such blatant pledges bold

Naked against all odds

Shaken, composure unfound.

Surviving only to tell stories untold

With trumpets of shame….to make the sound.





Tatenda Mhlanga

TYRANTS: REIGNING MEN

TYRANTS: REIGNING MEN

They were Men, who rang the bell,

Strong in nature, so volatile, one could tell.

There were Men who ran the cells

One could not resist; in their hands we fell

No doubt the truth is, we were now in hell

It’s the metropolitan advice they had to repel,

But remember it was our inheritance, they had to sell.



Once again, they were the Men, who ran our lives,

So charismatic and dangerous, like the bee hives.

They were ready to snatch our wives,

And when we would retort, we met cattle hides.

In terms of litigation our voices were placed on the sidelines

With tears in our eyes, we looked into the skies.

Could at least one Man listen to our cries?



They were the Men who held the knife and the yam.

With nobody’s business, they would drink rum,

Whilst we, the toilers, would have some,

Not rejoicing, but in memorium.

Some would think of the surviving day,

But as for now it was the coveted price we had to pay.



Tatenda W Mhlanga

STRENGTH IN ME

STRENGTH IN ME

My edging strength,

To take away anyone’s breath,

Has power over kings and lords,

They seek refuge to me as of old

Using right hand robbed men,

Human haired to make me inhuman,

But with peace and order that survive,

Kingdoms and domains revive

Coupled with traditions and religious patterns,

To be thrown in rubbish pits.

I scrolled in ink, scribed on sheets

Somehow abandoned, in archives,

Would come off the blue alive,

To the rescue for walls about to tumble and fall

And to the joy of my ears, I hear their call

But with a patronizing soul,

My offer at stake they take

They’ve no other choice to make,

Underlining my status, a mere document on show

Do not be perplexed, I am the Law.





Tatenda Mhlanga

ODE TO A DREAM LOVER

ODE TO A DREAM LOVER

I would have, could have, for you
Take a postured picture of you
But now it doesn’t sound
For woman you are worth every pound
Reality is what I seek; now I have found
For the soft and creamy
The bold and sometimes flimsy
Minds, I can’t distance myself with me
When I long to be loved
Stay calm, and be hugged
Become warm and in thy sensation be sucked
Be rubbed; be tight with ecstasy and all might
When by light I wake up in my lovers arms
And with a cup of coffee there she comes
Thy beauty crippling, soul-taking my bones
Loosing the taste of thy liquor, watching you
Those loopy curves-
Then will you not take me with you
On the wings of thy eagle and fly-----------
Tatenda W Mhlanga