This document contains a collection of poems addressing various social and political issues. Some key themes discussed include the lessons of humility passed down from fathers, the struggles of ordinary people and servants, hypocrisy among leaders, oppression, and the cycles of violence and broken promises that plague society. Overall the poems provide commentary on societal issues from the perspective of the downtrodden and call for sweeping away corruption to build a better future.

1. UNLEASHED VOICES
TO MY FATHER
A rejuvenation of your teachings
Those lessons of old
At times the stick did the trick
Then it was brutally frank talk
Those lessons that I learnt
Is it enough to say ‘Thanks’
Those lessons in humility
Shunning unbridled love for trinkets
Your immortality is guaranteed
Take then your rightful place in those courts
Those august courts in that place
TALK IS CHEAP
That question irrelevant
Then you answered it
Ever the philosophical one
Told her to go to hell
Enthusiastically she went
Staring death in the face
Harangued with prayers
Fervent prayers of apostates
Talk is very cheap
Thought they had you
She did not listen
That out of place turd
The roots could not succumb
That concerted uprooting
Bask in the glory of victory
PEOPLE’ SERVANTS
The dog fights
Juicy bone at stake
That is the bottom line
Falling over each other
Just to be servants
The masses are the masters
Feeding on the crumbs

2. Falling from servants tables
The left over masses
The rest decimated
Wallowing in squalor
Feeding from garbage bins
Just take a look
ON THE HORIZON
Oh ! No, not again
Falling victim to euphoria
Victim to alienation
This chameleonic caution
The tortoise will get there
The diviner may label your mother
The reason behind the graves
Hear the wisdom of Africa
Artist sing your song
That tension is healthy
Forever it has to remain
CERTAINTY
The sun will set
Dawn will sprout
Birds will twitter
The cocks will crow
Each one to his chores
That is how it is
That is how it should be
The children will play
On the road to the future
WITH MUD AND SPITTLE
This prophet has spoken
Those that have ears
Then let them hear
Those that have eyes
Let them now see
For what has been hidden
To the wise and the prudent
To the babe and suckling
Now been revealed
BAD MOUTH COMRADE

3. Spewing those caustic words
Bad mouthing the future
Regret will be your seat
There you will wallow
In the murky water of shame
Blinded by those trinkets
Steeped in our blood
Enjoying those stolen fruits
Watered by our misery
Ever heard of the last laugh
Ever heard the wisdom
What goes round comes around
The lessons are plain to see
ANOTHER FEAST
To celebrate a birth
A lot of deaths
Cattle massacred
Fowls too ,throats severed
All for a celebration
That is how it is
Deaths from over-indulgence
Then we have to give
Even what we do not have
That is how it is
The blind lead the way
The one eyed follow
LONG LOST CHILDREN
To Germany they went
That was long ago
Off my children went
They did not return
Still in Leonberg?
Still with Martin Kirchhoff?
Gone from the year 2000
Maybe a presumption of death?
FIGHTING ON

4. Not by choice
That this blood is here
Coursing through these veins
Through the arteries
By the will of the most High
That this blood grows
Fighting on relentlessly
Beyond limit push it
That warrior spirit lives on
Fighting against all strictures
The pulsating blood beat
That end is nigh
WARPED STORY
The story is warped
That reversal of roles
The servant is master
That story is warped
The leader is master
Pampered by the servants
Living in abject poverty
Drinking dirty water
Smote by hunger and thirst
The ubiquitous shack dwellers
RAGING STORM
Blinded by trinkets
Poly tricksters’ trinkets
That is not my style
Forever to be indebted
To be a praise singer
Veiling the wickedness
This soul is not for sale
See the raging storm
That is your demise
Play your games of poly tricks
Mine is the last laugh
DESTINY CALLING
Sharpened at the whetstone
The whetstone of my maker

5. The bull will gore you
Pull the dog by its tail
You may never live again
Live to tell the tale
A hindrance to your way
Then move out of my way
Hear the vibrations of fairness
This mind is not your shit paper
This mind is not your playground
Go on along that road
Your destiny calls, listen
That was how it was meant to be
Not one can blame you
There it is in your blood
OBSCENE FEASTING
The obscene feasting
The pimps and prostitutes
With the hounds in tow
Who will spoil the party
The obscene feasting
The mesmerized poor
Jostling for the crumbs
Then it's back to poverty
Pawns in a mindless game
THINKING OF YOU
Show me the way
Forever wield the compass
In this wilderness
Am I alone in this
Surrounded by hypocrites
Parasites abound too
Maggots lurking in the dark
Hairy maggots all around
Waiting for their turn
Show me the way
Come in my dreams
Come in my waking
Be here with me always

6. OPEN YOUR EYES
The pain of benevolence
Picked the mangy dog
The pain of betrayal
The gaping wound
Lessons learnt soon forgotten
The road to happiness is too long
The short road to pain
WATCHING A FEAST
In the scorching sun
Young minds expectant
For the dear leader waiting
Waiting and waiting
The pangs of hunger
The parched throats
The waiting goes on
Tortured by the smell of food
Never to taste a morsel
The forgotten school children
The parents too watch the gluttons
Coerced to watch the feast
EQUALITY OR EQUITY
Take your crooked ways away
Your warped ideas about rights
A bull will never moo
A hen will never crow
That is the way it is
That is how it will always be
Wait till the maggots have me
Then you can trample my dead body
This warrior is on a war path
WALK THROUGH HEART ACHES
Tears ordinary
They do not move me
Con-artists
Parading their tears

7. Tears of blood
Maybe their uniqueness
Tired of cheating games
Then I move on
AGAINST APOSTASY AGAIN
When you see the tranquility
Stand aside
When I speak to my creator
Away with your doctrines
The apostasy you preach
Spare me the crap
Their hearts and minds were not in
To the dung heap your foreign gods
The bruised spirits of my land call
Now I must answer
I have mastered your language
So that I open your minds
I will always talk to my creator
The spirits of my people call
SWEEPING
Wield the brooms now
Sweep out the garbage
These polluted minds
Minds brimming with corruption
Even men of the cloth
There below the cross
The horror show is on
Not one seems spared
Fornication even in the church yard
Hiding beneath mounds of hypocrisy
Now wield the brooms
This nation under strangulation
TO A WHITE SLUT

8. That racist shit
You threw into my meal
Your alcohol drenched mind
Those centuries of oppression
That was not kindergarten material
Not one could restrain your foul mouth
The stench pervaded the bar
Sucking us all into the vortex of violence
You sang the wrong tune
Making the blood of my ancestors boil
Civility got the better of me
Could have pounded you to pulp
Of the Achilles heel you took advantage
That makes the victim apologise
That makes me extend the hand
Extending the hand of reconciliation
For me to be smitten again
That pool of patience is drying up
THE WALL
The cracks in the wall
Push down the wall
None is safe behind it
Not one basks in the sunshine
Leaning there against it
See the dangers now
Push down the wall
The safety of the children
See the paramountcy of it
WHEN TIME IS UP
Let the maggots feed
Feasting time for them
All comes to nought
Carefully read Ecclesiastes
Chase away the priest
Drive away the politician
Forsake their speechifying
Abusing my corpse
Dance to those songs

9. Eat to your heart’s content
THE CORONATION
Under the snot apple tree
With the chibuku you enjoyed
With your profound dreams
With my vibrant hopes
Above all, that humility
With my desire to fight
Then I listened to your counsel
The killers have no pity
Not with any trace of bitterness
But with that unbelievable humility
Now I should genuinely smile
I take it to be a relay race
The sweat from your brows wipe off
For now you deserve your rest
This is the moment of your coronation
VICTORY
The clouds part
Sunshine filters through
Blades of grass in dew
The dampness everywhere
The sun shines
Dew takes flight
Songs of victory in the air
BULLET OR BALLOT
That game of numbers
More about quantity
To hell with quality
Ask even the dim wits
Bashing heads with logs
All in the name of free choice
Swept away by waves of intolerance
Confine those freedoms to paper
That declaration in 1948
Here it has no relevance
Forget about the ballot box
The truncheon, the bullet
These call the shots here

10. Forgive my Socratic skepticism
PROMISES AND LIES
On the podiums
The con-artists at it
Hear the oratory
The dew like promises
Their henchmen at it
In towns, cities and villages
Gratuitously dispensing violence
Pleasing the sadistic masters
Con-artists with poly-tricks
Raping the people again
Those bags of poly-tricks
The demise is at hand
READY TO SACRIFICE
The rats scurry for cover
The menace is around
That cat growing fat
None prepared to sacrifice
The hyena devouring the goats
The villagers quivering
Not one ready for confrontation
Cowards hiding behind closed doors
HORSE AND RIDER
This boiling blood
Your soul will be scorched
That horse and rider game
The lessons behind it
The colour of your skin
Your passport to superiority

11. Price open this healing wound
The stench of pus
Baas nauseates me
*Shef sickens me too!
That horse and rider game
That I vow never to play
• word that is used to mean boss in Zimbabwe generally
TOWARDS DEATH
The hurt deep inside
Seeing you lying there
Those last days of pain
Those lonely days
Those dark, dank days
Today it hurts deep inside
That emptiness inside me
Deserted by kith and kin
Will I ever know happiness
POET AT WORK
Knowing neither day nor night
That is my station in life
The beast of burden that I am
I know I am not alone in this
Carrying the rider and his baggage
The reward is their ingratitude
The twenty-four hour worker
Usually working even more
Heavily indebted to the future
The beast of burden at work
The tools of my trade by my bed side
Those flashes of brilliance to be captured
ONCE BITTEN
Out of their cocoons now

12. Sleeping in huts on reed mats
Throwing trinkets like confetti
The floods of sweet promises
Opportunists and their henchmen
Giving rides in fast imported cars
Building the false consciousness
Then the deathly silence comes
The broken and forgotten promises
The rich man’s heaven, the poor man’s hell
With their concubines wining and dining
Elsewhere the whirlwinds and dust
They are gone, gone for a long time
GRAND VISION
Not delusions of grandeur
Not an illusion
That is not a mirage
A profound vision
That looming greatness
Anointed by the maker
Called for a mission divine
The children in bondage
Breaking those chains
Spreading this message
Chanting down Jericho walls
Babylon crumbling like a sand castle
COMPATIBLE
A square peg in a round hole
A rat and a cat friendship
Blending water and oil
Hear my lively ululation
The hyenas and the goats at peace
A round peg in a square hole
The height of perfect blending
FORGIVING
That lively plant within
Looming stunted growth
Sandy soil of bitterness
The nourishing manure of forgiveness

13. Now desperately needed
The refreshing water of love
The life bright within
What a beautiful sight to see
OUTSIDE
That door you slammed
‘bang’ in my face
That was it
Then you shut me out
Pushed me away
Violently shoving me
The joy on the outside
That I began to accept
Enjoying it even
Now you try to reach out
Trying to embrace me
Maybe to the outside I belong
CAPTURING A MOMENT
Big ships sailing
The turbulent ocean
Vendors and wares
All on the beach
In the water
The seeming harmony
Women, men, children
Ecstatic about the waves
The myths about the water
The imagination fertile
OUT OF DARKNESS
Out of this morass
Your own redemption

14. There is hope yet
Grab the chance
That dark, dank past
Confine it to the past
Those mind games stop
Those dung heap games
Casting away the cloak of fear
On the road again
Those lessons we learnt
No more room for euphoria
WITCHES AND WIZARDS AT IT
Waves of anxiety
Relentlessly pummelling our minds
Quicksand of despondency
Threatening our hope
Giant waves of anxiety
Tightly gripping this nation
The looming abyss avert
The ominous personality cult
There is a price to be paid
Reason knocked loudly
There was no welcome at all
Together diffuse this bomb
These spirits yearn for freedom
TO A NUTTY PROFESSOR
Then you had incisive thoughts
Delivering telling blows you did
The thunder and lightning of protest
Then you tasted evil candy
Joined the obscene wining and dining
The songs of praise submerged the dirges
[Will you say you were the cancer]
Din of doubt in our minds
That protracted assault on independent minds
The truncheons outpaced thought
Those draconian pieces of legislation
That we forever bitterly remember

15. DWARFS
Propagandists at it
Weaving their evil webs
Trying to capture our minds
Our skeletons on the outside
Repelling the protracted attacks
The people march on
See the short memories
That stolen revolution
Now back to haunt them
The dwarf lives of lies
Bayonetted by the truth
Cunning opportunists kicked
Kicked into the trash can of shame
The wretched miscreants
Self seeking disciples of Narcissus
Lessons abound in history
That will cannot be held back
BRANDED MAN
Thought it stranger than fiction
Read it then in the newspapers
Thought it the figment of a fertile imagination
At best a very fertile one
At worst a very sick one
Thought it was an illusion
Thought it was another nightmare
The reality dawned on me
Wincing in excruciating agony
The indelible print plain to see
A branding iron on human flesh
This mind on the race track
Tugging at the roots of this sadism
The unbridled brutality exposed
Seeking tirelessly for elusive justice
What will heal that scarred mind
INDELIBLE TOUCH
Under the snot apple tree
Sitting and listening to myself
To your profound thoughts listening

16. That light house made of humility
That this ship may reach its destination
The sea has its usual turbulence
Waves pummel this ship in vain
The heavy load that I carry
Now light like a feather
This tree cannot be without roots
These are the lessons for posterity
The lessons of your profound love
That indelible signature remains
PRAYING TO GOD ALMIGHTY
Their empty talk
People of little faith
That I have no time for
Their god is dead
Mine is a living God
Asking for nothing but faith
Giving, giving without flinching
Protecting me from foes
Repent for the time is nigh
You people of little faith
Those snarling vampires, see
My God keeps them at bay
That I may sleep soundly
That I may walk on
Carry out this divine mission
No harm befalls my soul
This flesh cannot be immortal
Let them have the empty egg shell
My God is not dead at all
SHATTERING THE DREAM
Those lofty dreams
That spirit of Pan Africanism
This major set back
Fiery fires of xenophobia
Hear the wailing African children
South Africa see the shame
The scorn is upon you
Whose song is this you sing
What became of the rainbow

17. Today the colour red only
The deep respect for colonial borders
What has become of African renaissance
What wiry, ghoulish hand is this
The primeval beast devouring us
Turning dreams into nightmares
THE DEEP SEA AND THE DEVIL
The drought and the hunger
Shocking levels of unemployment
The ominous emptiness
Mounds of dead and decaying dollars
Jumping out of the frying pan
Marauding gangs of robbers
The man eating crocodiles
Turbulence in the Limpopo river
The stench for the elusive rand
Dreams of Egoli now nightmares
The smell of death everywhere
Jumping into the fire again
THE UNWITTING PROXIES
Wielding the axes, pangas, pistols
Assortment of weapons
The blood spilling
The proxies at it
Those deep divisions
That legacy to the fore
The reverence for that madness
The 1884 madness
2008 AFRICA DAY PRESENT
Africa Day present from South Africa
The burning, looting and killing in glee
From the victims of apartheid
Who yesterday sought refuge
Who today forget their Africanness
Another truth and reconciliation commission

18. To expose the present day murderers
The inexplicable mayhem in the ghettoes
That black blood continually spilled
What is this now children of the rainbow nation
The blood of your kith and kin wails
The mark of the beast plain to see
Your 2008 Africa Day present, South Africa
The deafening silence of progressive forces
TURNING IN THEIR GRAVES
Hate me for this indignation
This righteous indignation
The truth will cause offence
But let it be spoken still
That shocking backwardness shown
A bloody exhibition conducted
Through whose eyes do you see foreigners
Shooting yourselves in the foot
Giant strides into backwardness
Maybe even into oblivion
The pitfalls are just too many
The Pan African dream takes a knock
Kwame Nkrumah turns in his grave
So do the other Pan Africanists
The pain shall be indelible
Maybe it is a harbinger of greatness
THE DEAD WEEP
Tear drops flowing
Flowing from the graves
The dead weeping
The agony of the dead
The dead weeping
Weeping for their assailed dreams
Dr Kwame Nkrumah weeps
Marcus Mosiah Garvey weeps
Peter Tosh wailing still
Till Africa and Africans are free
Bob Marley wailing still

19. Africa unite
ERASING MY MEMORIES
Mutabaruka then you moved me
To take up arms against apartheid
The killings in Soweto, in Sharpeville
The bombing of exiles in Zimbabwe
The bombings in Mozambique
The bombings in Zambia and elsewhere
Peter Tosh you moved me to tears
Moving me to fight against apartheid
That callous jailing of Nelson Mandela
The hanging of now little known Benjamin Moloise
The mysterious death of Steve Bantu Biko
The deaths of all heroic sons and daughters
How can I forget Dennis Brutus
Choose to forget Ruth First
Choose to forget Umkhonto We Sizwe
Separate me from that struggle
That African struggle for freedom
Those attacks on so-called foreigners
The smell of burning flesh
Those all too familiar photos
The infamous necklacing of fellow victims
Fellow victims of poverty, ignorance and disease
The shocking violence on fellow Africans
The displacement of fellow citizens
Europe dismantles her borders
We slavishly cling to colonial legacies
Why alienate me from my struggle?
Why, why seek to erase my memories?
BEYOND THE HOPELESSNESS
Will time heal these wounds
These wounds inflicted on me
Inflicted by my own flesh and blood
Will time heal these wounds
Inflicted by my brothers and sisters
While my parents ululate

20. Will that laughter die
The laughter of foreigners
That laughing at our foolishness
What lessons shall we learn
Perfecting the instruments of torture
That we are less human
What lessons shall we learn
That dangerous claim to superiority
That we can pick the broken pieces
Pick them up and move on
THE EXORCISM
See the dark clouds
The dark clouds of evil
The air is humid
Ubiquitous hate speech
What now nation builders
All the mud slinging
Listen to the statesmen
Their words pure venom
Frothing at the mouth
No distinction between opponents and enemies
To the throne by any means
Murder, rape, kidnapping
The nation lifeless
In the web of fear
See the dark clouds
The dark clouds of evil
The thunder of their oratory
The lightning of poverty
Satisfying their evil egos
Nothing for us in all this

21. We refuse to be cannon fodder
Refuse to be pawns in their games
RED CARPET
When they roll out the red carpet
Then my heart skips a beat
Taught to revile the colour red
That I could by lightning be struck
That death and destruction it symbolizes
On the red carpet they walk
Under their feet the sufferers’ blood
INNOCENT BLOOD
That blood drips
Drips from your hands
The mark of the beast
There on your forehead
See that stain
Plain for all to see
That stain, that stain
Behind it the pain
How to forgive them
Those that never sought forgiveness
That blood drips
From the hands of my kith and kin
IN THE HANDS OF EVIL
Bombarded by those images
Images of gloom and doom
Images of hopelessness everywhere
Questioning our collective conscience
The media stands accused
Fanning fiery fires of xenophobia
Stand up men and women of conscience
The verdict is indeed yours
DYING BULAWAYO

22. Sense of smell smote
Stench of urine and shit
Pronounced in the city centre
Sense of sight smote
Everywhere garbage mounds
Right there in the city centre
Evidence of neglect exhibited
The decadence and decay in the city
Bulawayo slowly and painfully dying
The shadows moving about
Stinking business deals conducting
Oblivious of mounds of trash
VENCEREMOS
In cheap t-shirts clad
Fed on alcohol and drugs
Spreading the web of fear
Propping dangerous personality cult
Messengers of death everywhere
Kith and kin bludgeoning to death
One song must be sung
Waves of intolerance spreading
Chaining those desiring freedom
Out of this morass our lives
Bursting out of this bud of poverty
Between the hammer and tongs of hardships
Fashioning real men and women
OUR PSYCHE
That is how it has been
How it has always been
From a distance the vulture watches
There shall be carrion
Intently watching the cork
The fisherman waits still
That is how it is
For it has always been this way

23. Too much haste splits the potato
The chameleon will reach its destination
NATION BUILDING
Stylus still stuck
Stuck in the groove
Compact disc scratched
The monotony of it
The mad man dances
Oblivious of the monotony
THE DECAPITATION
To you I would come
Just for a pinch of salt
That mirth across our fences
Today it’s all gone
Gone like dew in the morning
To me you would come
No fire in your hearth
Today my home razed to the ground
Trapped in the inferno
The wailing of my children
EYE OF THE STORM
That avenging spirit
Decapitating the children
The horrendous wailing
Parents unable to bury children
Children unable to bury parents
Everywhere vibrations of violence
POLITICIANS AND PRIESTS
The dominance submerges discussion
That elevation to the podium
The raping of the mesmerized audience
Those that submit to your machinations
Listening to your befuddling poly tricks
Listening to your self righteousness
Politician and priest in the same mould
Thriving best where fear spreads
But listen now to this ant voice

24. That ominous warning : beware the ides of march
That myth of your invincibility shattered
King Owl’s horns exposed for what they were
That folk tale still holds that lesson
VICTIMS
Driven by dreams of Egoli
That place of elusive gold
That place of the elusive rand
Driven from the burning home
Evading the murderous gangs
Evading the man eating crocodiles
Also the real possibility of drowning
Scavenging for an existence
Still chasing after those illusions
Jumping from the frying pan into fire
The shacks razed to the ground
The gruesome deaths in the ghettoes
The victims of the victims
The real foe remains unscathed
Like amoeba the poverty multiplies
TO A BROTHER
The pain has not abated
The pain of not knowing
Not knowing the truth
His was hearsay evidence
Now it lies buried deep
Deep in the six feet deep grave
Deep in my troubled mind
That you labelled me : charlatan
Before my face you smiled
Where lies the truth?
KILLING SEASON
Thugs at the helm
Spattered brains
Deaths at door steps
The sadism everywhere
Murder in the air
Rising waves of brutality
Deserted homes
Fires gobbling up homes

25. Those wailing souls
In the steel grip of evil
Evil seemingly triumphant
Killers on the loose
Fatal scythes everywhere
REPEAT PERFORMANCE
A real possibility
The same sad song
New singers on the stage
Exhibiting the scars
Claiming saviour status
Mercenary tendencies ahead
Champions of our struggle
Claiming those privileges
Forsaking the greatness
Forsaking lessons in humility
NO PART IN THE CHARADE
To desecrate that blood
To give the devil pleasure
To appease the vampires
To steal from the poor
To find pleasure in pain
These fingers shall bear no stain
The stain of the blood
The blood of my slain people
QUESTIONING NON-INTERFERENCE
How long shall you stand there
Stand there with folded arms
Stand there in deathly silence
There with your caged pity
Seeing the father next door turn monster
Taking his wife for a punch bag
Feeding his children on dog shit
Making them drink his alcohol laden urine
VANTAGE POINT
The podium
The pulpit
Pedestal placing

26. Warped ideas
Demagogues at it
WORDS
Words, words and more words
Word hoards at it
Turning to the thesaurus
Turning to dictionaries
Hood winking us all
Politicians with more words
Priests with more words
Floods of words everywhere
For in the beginning was the word
Sacred issues now profaned
Words, words and more words
THE MIGHTIER ONE
Someone forgot to tell the emperor
Maybe someone misled him
Could it have been his obduracy
All that raving and ranting
Then the basics were abandoned
That the pen is mightier is known
In the beginning was the word
The donkey jaw bone came later
The sling and the stone too
The gun can never be mightier
Who led the emperor into this abyss
THE GREAT BETRAYAL
That bitterness is understandable
That betrayal is quite apparent
Then you ran with the hares
And hunted with the hounds
The opportunist you always have been
Those accolades they showered you with
The medals they pinned on your chest
The overlord they turned you into
The leopard had not changed its spots
You had taken the thirty pieces of silver
A perpetual guest at their banquets
Those high sounding titles they gave you
Those trinkets that blinded you to our suffering

27. Today you drag us along into your schemes
Still you pull wool over our eyes
Your self preservation becomes our business
Not all fall prey to your machinations
Those machinations will not hold sway
THE RAPED FUTURE
I am the raped future
Look at me and you will understand
See the deep physical wounds
Inflicted on me by political thugs
The psychological scars of propaganda
The past and the present raped me
I am the raped future
Now standing at street corners
Facing shocking unemployment levels
Waylaying travellers by the roadside
Driven by need and not greed
Selling pounds of flesh in bars and brothels
Languishing in putrid prison cells
I am the battered and bruised future
Eking a living on South African farms
Vainly evading violent arrests and detentions
Waiting and waiting for deportation at Lindela*
Back home to face naked brutality
Hoping that one day the sun will shine
• South African jail where illegal immigrants are held almost indefinitely before
deportation to their countries of origin.
Soul seekers
Candy tongue
Viper tongue
Soul seekers
Preaching apostasy
Devouring souls
Promising heaven
Giving hell
PAWNS
And you chant slogans

28. Slogans of death and destruction
Then you kill and maim
None is worth killing for
No politician worth dying for
Nothing in common with the benzocrats
Just a pawn in evil games
Meanwhile they congregate in secret places
Dividing the cake among themselves
All you get are the crumbs
See the irretrievable loss of your humanity
TOWARDS THE ABYSS
Where are the God fearing leaders?
Where are the true patriots?
Where is that fountain of altruism?
Where are you now nation builders?
What is the root of this avarice?
MARCHING ON
This is no time for lullabies
No, not at all
This is no euphoria time
This is vigilance time
Stay awake all you artists
Be the beasts of burden still
Remain the nation’s conscience
Though dirges may subside
Do not let the praise singing take control
The dangers of a personality cult
The dangers of unbridled power
The militarisation of our institutions
Have you forgotten already
Wake up men of time, wake up
This is no time for slumber
The future is calling, answer now
NO SYCOPHANT
I am no one’s praise singer
I will never be a sycophant
I am a man on a mission
Never to fall for Delilah’s charms
There is a long road ahead
Pharaoh I will give sleepless nights

29. The shackles and chains must be obliterated
Total emancipation is what I yearn for
The righteous fight I shall wage
Fighting poverty, ignorance and disease
Fighting the demonic conditions holding us
Holding us in murky hopelessness
I will not preach about empty peace
Peace without equal rights and justice
I am a man on a mission
Those hurdles I will surmount
Euphoria will not get the better of me
I will continually wield the sword of justice
ANGLICISED
There at Windsor castle
Is chiShona spoken at times
What about IsiNdebele
Any other African language
Deep down in rural Zimbabwe
Listen and you will hear
The so-called royal family will blush
A HERO
The story shall be told
The story of your villainy
How you refused to be a hero
Then you stood at the cross roads
The path to betrayal you chose
Turned against the wailing masses
Decided to go for thirty pieces of silver
Decided to get medals for buffoonery
The story shall be told
Your children shall bear the curse
The trumpet of revolution is sounding
BARE FACTS
Where do we fit
This scheme if things
These dog fights
The thugs at the helm
Their concubines in tow
The fight for privileges
That is the whole story

30. MOTHERLY LOVE
Then she feeds them
Smote by biting hunger
There by the road side
Picking fallen maize grains
Fierce competition with the birds
TO THE PATRIOTS
A nation under siege
The protracted brutal assault
Those values of old slain
Ubiquitous stench of greed
Withholding food for political ends
Amassing stinking wealth
Squalor holds us by the throats
Rich man’s heaven, poor man’s hell
See the dramatized philanthropy
Their pretended benevolence exhibited
Playing dangerous games with our lives
‘Justice now!’ is the refrain
NO DROWNING
Never to drown these thoughts
Drown these thoughts in euphoria
Still in love with Socratic skepticism
Questioning the answers they give
Espousing chameleonic caution still
Nothing wrong with doubting Thomas
The tortoise will complete its journey
WHICH WAY?
Your mind in turmoil
You left when you could
This place you once called home
Devastated by years of misrule
Exiled by extreme poverty
Now you wait anxiously
FREEDOM SONG

31. I yearn for lots of space
Lots of room for me to grow
Don’t want to be a potted plant
With my branches trimmed
By the merciless gardeners
I yearn for lots of space
Being closeted brings much trepidation
Don’t want to be a caged bird
Want to soar through the air
And perch on the highest places
I detest all this stifling domestication
I am a dove and not a pigeon
I will never be a Brahman bull
Watch out I am a buffalo
OIL AND WATER
Still steeped in arrogance
Those many years of obduracy
Add the unbridled profligacy
Maintaining the status quo
The fragility of peace deals
The oil and water deals
But then time is the master
THIS ANGER
Sitting in the darkness
Writing this poem by torch light
Somewhere someone screaming
Poverty holding someone by the throat
Inefficiency keeping us thirsty
Looming possibility of diseases
Getting to the root of this mess
The people’s mandate trampled
SOUR TASTE IN THE MOUTH
Just yesterday rolled a spliff
Lit the chalice
Fought against their malice
Those that outlaw the herb
Poisoning minds with alcohol

32. Killing and maiming millions
Just yesterday took the herb
Smote the Babylon wickedness
Soothing my troubled soul
Drew closer my guardian angels
Today jailing a brother
For possession of the sacrament
Cleanse me of this wickedness
Take me out of the Babylon shitstem
THE NEW SONG
This has been a long night
The thick wintry darkness
The sad song of croaking frogs
The rumbling thunder and lightning
The eerie hooting of owls
Hyenas laughing in the distance
This has been a long walk
The way thistle and thorn laden
Stumbling, falling and rising again
At the back of the mind the refrain:
The darkest hour is before dawn
The first rays of the rising sun
The sweet songs of the birds
The doves cooing in the distance
The cymbals of African laughter
The vibrancy of life plain to see
DENTED PRIDE
Our dented pride
Rands in our pockets
Green backs in our wallets
Zimbabwe dollar reviled
Pushed into the slime and grime
The stench of selfishness
Hear the wailing souls
The stolen revolution
At the helm the opportunists
See the avenging spirit

33. A WORD OF WARNING
Then narcissus drowned
Mind befuddled by illusions
Transformed into delusions
Worshipping the ego
Alone in delusions of grandeur
Then narcissus drowned
THE CASUALTIES
Many are the casualties
While the bickering continues
See the monstrosity around
No end in sight at all
The hunger and starvation
The galloping inflation
The flummoxed rural folk
Cunning city dwellers
Driven by the need to survive
Devising lots of wicked schemes
All hope fast dissipating
Still soldiering on though
Now seeking divine intervention
The casualties are too many
QUESTIONING STILL
The birth pangs of a new order
[Is this blind optimism?]
The truncheon bashing heads
Lodged in lice infested cells
Unimaginable brutality exhibited
While I cling to Socratic skepticism
Keenly aware of the poly tricks
A nation in the vortex of violence
Power drunk monsters at the helm
While I ponder over the derailment
The wailing souls of liberators

34. Are we a nation of dim wits?
Maybe a peace loving nation
Or is there terror deep in our hearts
LESSONS FOR POSTERITY
Listen children to these lessons
The lessons of your roots
Those lessons of old
Resonating into the future
Posterity must not starve
Bereft of the foundation
Lessons in profound humility
Lessons in self sufficiency
Too proud to beg
For begging is enslavement
Learn from the eagle
Learn from the lion
Learn from the elephant
Those lessons of old beckon
The future should forge ahead
The time is nigh
TIME NOW
Time now for moral regeneration
To salvage those ideals
To do serious introspection
Collective conscience trampled for too long
Time to clean up the mess
To wipe away the stench of greed
Time now for moral regeneration
Rapists, killers, pimps and prostitutes
Drive back into the crevices of society
Never again to be pedestal placed
Listen to this wailing nation
Time now for moral regeneration
ORPHANS
My people sacrificed
To please the devils
To please the vampires
How many more must die
Dying of this neglect

35. Dying due to all the ignorance
No sound of guns
Hunger shooting us down
Diseases scything us endlessly
What became of that bravery
Exhibited in that fight
What became of that determination
Lying deep in our heroes graves
CHOLERA
The shit hits the fan
Everyone gets soiled
A nation living in fear
Clothing the truth in lies
Whispering behind closed doors
The truth in whispers
The truth is an offence
Everywhere the shit
A nation feeding on shit
Now perishing because of it
While mindless games are played
A nation living in fear
HYPOCRITES AND PARASITES
Stick around and fight
Or quit in frustration
Leave the sufferers alone
Save my own skin
Questions in a deluge
The real criminals free
The poor always jailed
Facing a hostile system
Wiped out by ignorance and diseases
Poverty is a crime
Criminals out of grim necessity
See the poor and needy
Treated like vermin in society
While the greedy get filthy rich
SCHEMING MINDS

36. That time you congregated
Congregated in evil places
At the centre of your evil talk
You dragged my name into it
I will not be smote again
Giving you easy victories
No more time for polite talk
Never to mask my feelings again
Shooting straight all the way
IN THE CRUCIBLE
In this forge
In this crucible
What’s the refinement
Throw in the repression
The astounding lunacy
A plethora of diseases
The unreported deaths
The false assurances
The future beckons
How many will tell the story
STENCH OF ARROGANCE
Hear the wailing
Wailing in the ghettoes
The stench of failed systems
The putrid arrogance
The avoidable deaths
Graves gobbling many
Hairy maggots in morgues
Life rendered worthless
Rivers of raw sewage
Many a life drowned
Hear the wailing
Wailing in the ghettoes
THE OLD LION

37. The lion roared
Sending chills down spines
Devouring whole villages
Striking terror in the hearts
Grab it now
By its shrivelled balls
The end is in sight
That myth is shattered
The invincibility is no more
HOPE
Living under tonnes of despair
Diseases scything our lives
Whirlwinds of insanity everywhere
Thoughts of suicide afflicting us
Vicious blows of poverty
Mindless automatons bereft of love
I will sing songs of hope
JUSTICE TIME
That was the time
Read the book: Ecclesiastes
A time of profound peace
Then you rode rough shod on him
Then you took him for a mule
That time is now up
That time has come
Now the fangs of war are bared
Brace yourselves for it
The thunder and lightning
Peace time is now up
Justice time is now
THE FRESH WIND BLOWS
Snot apple tree now bearing fruit
Sharing chibuku under its shade
Oiling our many conversations
Talking about trials and tribulations
Talking about joys and triumph
Stories of your life in South Africa

38. Deep in the belly of the earth
In the vine yards of Stellenbosch
About the guidance of the spirits
The many battles that you fought
Snot apple tree now bearing fruit
Your words and ways immortalized
Your counsel heeded always
The baton must be passed on
For this is a long relay race
MOTHER OUT LAW
Then you showed buffoonery
A ravenous love for money
That gold digger of old surfaced
Had never gone away anywhere
Thought of your lewd dancing
Sexually suggestive dances for money
Preying even on the lust of the insane
Attracting even the scum of the earth
Today you are at it again
Chasing after trinkets as usual
Then your schemes will dry up
Leaving you empty handed again
That caged bird will fly away
This one was smote once
Never to be hurt again
TRIBUTE TO THE TORTURED
In the eerie cells
The blood stained walls
The stench of urine and shit
Aftermaths of the brutality
The ear splitting screams
Those heroes stolen by evil schemers
In the torture chambers
The tortured torturers
Inserting electrodes into vaginas
Tugging at testicles with pincers
The waves of dehumanization
The dead and the dying

39. In disused mine shafts
The ebbing away of pain
Tormented souls in corridors of power
SHOOTING STRAIGHT
What is this patriotism they talk of
Another of their poly tricks
Asking us to go to shells of hospitals
Asking us to go to shells of schools
Off they go to the western capitals
Searching for the treatment they deny us
Searching for the education they deny us
Dying in droves of avoidable diseases
Nurturing the ignorance that is our demise
Show me the true patriots now
Those visitors have overstayed their welcome
BEREAVED
Once respected, almost revered
Now reviled and rejected
Once vibrant and full of life
Now wallowing in sickly slumber
The scum of the earth
In a dance of death
Once great among nations
Now become a widow
Once the bread basket
Now a perennial beggar
Singing pitiful songs for survival
Minds in the grip of terror
The patriots turned traitors
Hens feeding on their own eggs
Visitors refusing to go
Making all sorts of weird excuses
The timelessness of Ecclesiastes
THE POWER OF PRAYER
Praying everyday
To see them falling
The falling of wicked men

40. To see them lose
Lose all their ill gotten gains
Their wretched lives losing
Praying everyday
For the stopping of wailing
Heart rending wails of my people
THE INACTION
How many more must die
Die of avoidable ailments
How many more must die
Die of this rampant ignorance
Before we lift a finger
How many more should be detained
Kidnapped and detained without trial
Tortured and brutalized in unimaginable ways
How many more should be battered and bruised
The violence now at our doorsteps
Did we think we were immune
That fire that seemed so distant
Now our homes it devours
Did we think it would end at our neighbours' homes
CAPS , GOWNS AND HOODS
Exhibiting your buffoonery
The audience you bamboozle
Casting your evil spell on them
Getting empty standing ovations
You call yourself educated
Extensively you make quotations
Leaning on other people's crutches
Quoting extensively from Plato
Quoting from Aristotle extensively
You mistake schooling for education
Your rote learning with knowledge
In you I see an erudite ape

41. Your lack of humility is baffling
The day of simple lessons is dawning
ANOTHER PLANE
Artists on the go
Never to fall into slumber
Never again to sing praises
Ignoring the dirges around us
No time for lullabies
While poverty rages on
While they wine and dine
Wining and dining on our behalf
No more time for euphoria
Proceeding with that caution
The chameleonic caution
Learning lessons well
Refusing to be used
Thrown away like used condoms
Never to be propagandists
Keeping that audacious eye
That healthy tension
Seeing through the poly tricks
Being the nation' s conscience still
Artists on the go still
CHANGE RINGING
The leopard has not changed its spots
That cultivated obduracy remains
That murderous streak is there
The obduracy and profligacy is here
So the stylus is stuck on the vinyl
Still the same sad, old and discordant voice
See a new day is dawning
Soon taste the succulent new wine
Not one can hold back the hands of time
See the inevitability of change
The old order gives way to the new
That surely is the way of the word

42. FORCES OF RETROGRESSION
When you think it 's peace and safety
There is a sudden destruction
They sit and sign peace treaties
Then the lions are tamed
Like sheep they are then slaughtered
The hands drip with innocent blood
Many more will have to die
Many will shed tears of joy
Putting the icing on their cake of evil
Their demise is now at hand
DEMISE OF ANOTHER DREAMER
It is just a soap bubble
Maybe a dry and barren wind
The poet , philosopher said it
Loud and clear is ecclesiastes
The finality of death
Those hopes and dreams
All those thoughts gone to waste
Where is life then
GRAVY TRAIN 1
Where dirges are due
I will not sing songs of praise
When I see betrayals everywhere
I will not see a shred of loyalty
I will not wine and dine with the devil
And trample my hungry and angry people
They will hate my audacious eye
But then I am a man on a mission
Will you not help me sing this song
GRAVY TRAIN 2
Tales about luxury cars
Tales of lavish life styles
That gap forever widening
Another struggle off the rails
Living large in holiday resorts
Forgetting all about cholera

43. Forgetting about the illiterate
Forgetting about dangerous roads
Shamelessly accepting the bribes
That is how blunt it is
Again we are taking notes
We are not bereft of leaders
ANOTHER REVOLUTION
The whole lot of you
Dirty, rotten scoundrels
Looking for privileges everywhere
Emulating your role models
Guilty of the stinking elitism
Riding on our aspirations
Now we know your true colours
Time for a third force
Putting the revolution back on track
You have been carefully studied
Now you have fallen into the trap
That trap of ill gotten gains
While we wallow in poverty
Our hopes and dreams drowned
But we have to survive still
HEALING THE NATION
Never again should we be subjected
Subjected to the profanation of the sacrosanct
The sacrosanct symbols of our struggle
Never again should there be the arrogance
The arrogance of self proclaimed saviours
Leaving people to burn in the sun
While in hotels they wine and dine
With hounds and concubines in tow
Inflammatory speeches should forever be gone
Statesmen and women should take to podiums
Messages of nation building should resonate
The time for the healing of the nation is now
SAYING MY PRAYERS
Dabble in your apostasy
Pray to foreign gods
Leave the path of truth
Your demise is nigh

44. Your soul shall rot
Live then in your hell
WHORES AND ROBBERS IN TOWN
Panga wielding on the prowl
Ready to pounce on the unsuspecting
A curfew for law abiding citizens
Now the crocodiles have left the river
They lie in wait in dark places
The darkness of the shitty fathers and mothers
Making AIDS kindergarten stuff
Whores lurking everywhere in town
Brisk business for funeral parlours
ARISE AFRIKA ARISE
Siphoning our raw materials
While in abject poverty we wallow
Taking away our diamonds, gold , platinum
While we adorn our bodies with fake jewellery
Propagating their Anglophone ideas
Spreading their francophone thinking
Somewhere lusophone ideas held supreme
African philosophies on the dung heap
The poisoned and stunted crop
Choosing to forget marcus mosiah garvey
Choosing to forget kwame nkrumah
Choosing to remove reggae from the air waves
That dream should now bear fruit
Those chasms have to be bridged
The senseless bickering should end
Afrika with mud and spittle get your sight
BOMB BLAST
That fight is on
With renewed vigour
The fight is rejuvenated
My father lives on
He enemies within

45. The enemies without
The humility exhibited
Seeking for the truth
My father lives on
Dropping that bomb
Iconoclastic bomb dropped
Shattering warped ideas
This warrior fights on
Fighting fake gods
This meekness is not weakness
Taking the fight to them
Scoring victories against them
I am not alone on the wilderness