1. VOICES IN TURBULENCE
HAPPINESS IN THE GUTTER
The mark of the beast
It is upon us
The future was there
There in the past
That was the foundation
These one dimensional creatures
Negating those teachings of old
The seed that fell upon the rock
The seed choked by the thorns
Today we still are blind
Blinded by material things
Gaining the world
The pursuit of silver and gold
Rearing hideous goblins
These are the echoes of revelations
TWICE RAPED
The indelible scars
Aftermath of a heinous crime
Raped first by a foreign bandit
Next raped by kith and kin
The trauma shall subside
That time is not far
AFRIKA IGNITE
These little boys
They deserve a spanking
A rod for a fool’s back
Time tested wisdom
Clinging to western greed
Cape to Cairo, they need a spanking
Keeping us far apart
Respecting Berlin Conference borders
1

2. Still reducing this giant to a dwarf
Forsaking this foundation of civilization
Those dreams shall come to fruition
THE MYTH SHATTERED
The drongo did it first
Pecking at those horns
That myth was shattered
The myth of invincibility
King Owl had no horns after all
The rest is history as they say
That time is not far
The writing is now on the wall
The moment of crowning is now at hand
WHAT WILL BE SHALL BE
Some day I will sit
In the coolness of the shade
The shade of a leafy tree
I will sing this song
This song of freedom
That whirls continually in me
I will light my *spliff
Give thanks and praises
To my forever giving Creator
The children will sing along
We all will dance in joy
We all will celebrate our emancipation
*ganja or marijuana cigar or cigarette
NATION BUILDERS
They jumped over the fences
They jumped over the hedges
They scaled the walls
Through the back door
They came in droves
The gate crushers took over
They distributed the food
They distributed the drinks
They gobbled the bulk of the food
2

3. Their greed they exhibited
The gate crushers are at it
SPEAKING TO POSTERITY
Will they listen to me
When they cannot listen to themselves
When they brutally trample that ant voice
The ant voice deep within themselves
All faith in them I have lost
Those stories of old are alive
The fire in the hearth I rekindle
The present chooses not to listen
Let me talk to the future
Maybe one soul may listen
This nation needs the healing
Some day someone will listen
A VISIT
Ominous it was
Shook me by the roots
The roots of my existence
That it did
The violent storm
The bolt of lightning struck
The gigantic tree uprooted
All those lives were spared
Then calm returned
Then I talked of those prayers
I was smote by their disbelief
Like a tortoise I withdrew into my shell
BEHIND THE GLAMOUR AND GLITTER
These pathetic creatures
Is this the humanity
The senseless wars everywhere
For gold on their fingers
Gold around their necks
The blood behind the diamonds
The blood shed for the crude oil
These pathetic creatures
This is part of the exorcism
3

4. CAUTION
What warped nationalism is this
What warped pan Africanism is this
Pretending to fight this imperialism
By night selling the sacred inheritance
Betraying those bones not yet interred
Betraying that blood not yet dry
Keeping fellow citizens in chains
The chains of fear and poverty
Holding out trinkets to sycophants
And the ubiquitous opportunists
I reject this blind pan Africanism
Clapping and ululating to aid violence
Now in the vortex of violence
Aiding black on black violence, yes
To spite the enslavers, colonizers, imperialists
See they hide behind revolutionary rhetoric
Their deception is destined for the dung heap
FOR THE DUNG HEAP
There is no meal here
Too late to salvage anything
This fish is rotten
The foul stench
From the head to the tail
To the garbage can
Take it there fast
AFTERMATH OF THE WAR
When the war is over
Remember to appease their spirits
Those that became food for the crocodiles
Those whose bones are in the sand
In the river bed of the Limpopo
Those that the murderous gangs preyed on
Remember all those children
Shot and killed or maimed on the farms
Those that languish in apartheid jails
Those that adopted new names
Those that turned to prostitution
There hoping to find redemption
Many that succumbed to the scourge
4

5. Remember to appease their spirits
OMITTED LESSONS
Question the relevance
Tear up the certificates
New lessons beckon
The syllabi omitted these
The viciousness of the crocodiles
Swimming across the flooded river
Negotiating with hordes of robbers
This is the sound of reality
Giving bribes to law enforcers
Crawling under the razor wire
The dexterity of scaling electric fences
These are the lessons they omitted
SMOTE
Egoli
Where is the gold
Those bright city lights
To me it is a dark, dank cave
Perhaps a nightmare
Where is the sweet dream
With the cops in hot pursuit
This cat and mouse game
Some kind of Russian roulette
Standing in the middle of the road
Selling a plethora of newspapers
Headlines screaming about border jumpers
About the xenophobia
About the grinding poverty back home
Chasing after the elusive rand
Amai what has become of me
A corpse under mounds of frustration
REALITY CHECK- UMPTEENTH TIME
The truth shall set you free
The preacher man said so
The politician took to the podium
The claim: his word was the truth
Then I saw images of freedom
On the streets I saw the squalor
The politician’s bin was full of left overs
Then he sped past in imported cars
5

6. Then I remembered his word
The preacher man’s word I remembered
Now it is time to tell the truth
Bound in shackles and chains
Then thrown into the dungeons
The penalty for the truth is death!
THE CURSED ONES
This explosion
This implosion
The maggots shall not have it
Here where it belongs
Trouble their consciences
That is if they have any
Those that have personalised it
Personalised our struggle
These self righteous bigots
Raping this nation
We shall remember them
Condemnation is their crown
The curse they shall bear
They shall lie in solitude
No one shall bring them flowers
Forlornly they shall be in their graves
Now we refuse their piss and shit
Hear the trumpet of struggle
Victory for nation builders
Opportunists be damned now
HYPOCRITES AND PARASITES
Beneath the bland smiles
Behind the toothpaste advert smiles
Behind the discordant sycophantic songs
The din of ululation and whistling
In the glamour of cheap oratory
There is the desert of insincerity
That is the haven of avowed hypocrites
DEFLOWERED MINDS
Waving away the flies of boredom
With the images of debauchery
The hangover of that bliss
6

7. All that denial and the shame
The excesses of technology
The tonnes of pornographic materials
Dabbling in all this perversion
Hideous sex packaged and sold
The price is too high to pay
Sex selling hot on the internet
The masturbation, the shemales
The sucking, the fucking and the groaning
The addiction is plain to see
Our baser instincts on a pedestal
FRAGMENTS OF MY HEART
Then your tears in a deluge
They came
A shoulder to lean on
That you needed
There for you I was
At rope’s end
You could have dangled
Those promises you made
Today the stench of lies
You used me and abused me
Now you trample my feelings
Alone I am in my tribulations
Blown off like chaff are your promises
That together we will walk
Walk along this narrow path
Regret is the sanctuary of the weak
Now I have to pick myself up
From the dust of your lies
Forever on my way to happiness
MY SPIRITUAL BATTERIES
Recharging my spiritual batteries
The manifestation of my creator
Give thanks and praises to the beginning
The story behind this soil
That forced relocation to these sandy soils
This time the deep introspection
Reflecting on the hypocrites and parasites
Destruction walking with smiling faces
In the concrete jungle where the living is rough
Who is the hunter? Who is the prey?
7

8. Today I invoke the warrior spirit
LINES FOR EMELO 2
Through that rough patch
Through those thistles and thorns
Then I was your emotional shock absorber
Today on the dung heap I am
But I know it is only for a while
Again you will come crying
Those wounds I will treat
Like a used condom you discard me
But some day the door will be bolted
Your burdens you will bear alone
Then a refuge I will not be
Take the hailstorm of your tribulations
Today I carry this sadness alone
The victim of your amnesia
These emotional scars shall be gone
Take your woes elsewhere
TRIUMPH
The dropping bombs
Bombs of propaganda
Bombarding my brain paths
All these gods
Seeking to cage my mind
Weaving their webs
Torrents of religions
Seeking to drown my soul
The din of futility
The vibrancy of my roots
Repelling these machinations
The din of triumph
THE URBANITE
In the cities
The emasculation
All this desolation
Plunged into darkness
The urbanite has no balls
8

9. With this domesticated shit
The water pipes dry
The urbanite stinks
Take for granted their resilience
There in those places
Derisively labelled the sticks
Label them country bumpkins
Look at the pretended sophistication
The urbanite is in a mess
BEHIND THE VEIL
Those galloping thoughts
That societal restraint
For hearts would be broken
Dark deeds would be done
The secret communication
Heightening the emotions
That dance long started
Then young dancers we were
The sweetness of this music
Now that innocence is gone
Is this an illusion
Is this a delusion
What is this bird freely flying
Oblivious of hideous archers
Are these emotions a scandal
Are these thoughts hidden from view
An unfinished story holding us captive
MARCHING ON
It is my life story
These footprints
Foot prints on the page
Or is it mind prints
That journey is on
These are the land marks
Withstanding the wind
Withstanding the rain
Indelible footprints
There to be immortalized
Sit up and listen
THE STENCH OF YOUR LOVE
9

10. Now in the morgue
Maggots’ next meal
Not a pauper’s burial
Flower bedecked casket
The sumptuous meals
The acrid smell of your love
That question on a pedestal
While in the storm drains I slept
From garbage cans having fed
That ramshackle wheel chair
A mangy dog life existence
Where was your love?
AT IT AGAIN
For the umpteenth time
You yearn for comfort
Foolish comfort in numbers
Unrelenting you really are
Persistent as a fly
Your tongue spews cyanide
Poisoning the well I drink from
Shameless witch in daylight
Your demise a cause for celebration
RAW SEWAGE
For the slave wages
Work off your arse
As a sex slave
The boss’ sexual gratification
I shed not a tear
Your brains you made a stool
For want of wisdom
That path leads to death
BLINDED BY OPTIMISM
Blinded by my optimism
Am I alone in this
Beyond these haggard faces
Beyond the emaciated bodies
Stunted by the slave wages
Shell shocked by the brutality
10

11. Beyond the turbulent voices
I hear the chirping birds
The resonating African laughter
The warmth of the African embrace
The undying hope of my people
The sweet scent of our love
The lustre of summer is here
TREASURES
Keep your dirty trinkets
My soul is not for sale
Keep your ill gotten wealth
I desire not your ways
You chase after the winds
You reap whirlwinds
Soil not my reputation
This dynamite will blow you
Blow you to smithereens
Teach you well they did not
A beggar I will not be
On your alms surviving
The bread of my sweat
Forever that I will treasure
Get thee behind me Judas
Someone else go kiss
My pride is my treasure
That the maggots will never touch
Your wailing wealth keep
With sycophants surround your ego
An untainted name I treasure
Ecclesiastes read closely
This soul is not for sale
OIL AND WATER
Their feet dragging
Evolutionaries or revolutionaries
Their masters’ voices echoing
Still here the Berlin conference
Champions of gradualism
Not caution but cowardice
11

12. To divide and rule lessons holding
Now in full control baas boys
Bridging the artificial chasms
That time is at hand
REVOLUTION TIME AGAIN
That divine mission
Back slider be gone
Advocates of gradualism
Revolution is at hand
The parasites crush
Sucking this precious blood
The leeches squash
Bash out of memories
The rifts they created
Out of this crucible of subjugation
Real citizens triumphantly rise
BURIAL
Tug of war
Dead body-the rope
Vultures feast
At the centre the carrion
The priest armed with hell
The dead body an altar
With putrid speech the politician
The dead body a podium
Liars not to be out done
Even the wicked are saintly
SACRIFICIAL LAMBS
Hear them
These angry voices
Listen to them
These wailing souls
12

13. See the flowing blood
The dissenting voices
These emaciated shadows
The moving graves
That time is nigh
A fresh dawn looms
THE SOUND OF LIFE AND DEATH
A share for the maggots
A share for the needy
What about the greedy
This story must be told
Riches for our children
Riches for this nation
Fuck your vain glory
Volcanic eruptions these are
A shareholder I am not
Gain the world to lose your soul
Unassailable love for my creator
Delivered from the hands of evil
The resilience of my people
Those ways of old beckon
Sing this song of joy
The radicals set the trend
Voices of liberation resonate
DRINKING INNOCENT BLOOD
They were all there
Thieves and murderers
There they mourned
More than the bereaved
That sacrificial lamb
Stone cold in the casket
Honoured in death
The shitstem* lives another day
The blindness ululates
Oblivious of the wickedness
13

14. Listen to their oratory
Traitors dance on the grave
That time is not far
The cleansing is at hand
* shit system
NOT YET UHURU
By the British pound
Deeply divided
The deep chasms
Blood stained US dollars
Those serious rifts
Francs at the root
Thrown into the fray
The deutschmark
Look at the raw wounds
HARLOT BLOOD
The tell tale signs
Harlot blood boiling
Nymphomania on the rise
Can you be spared
Not for domestication
Defiling that institution
That Jezebel spirit
That mask falls off
Shame pedestal placed
Let me taste the pain
The pain of deception
Unveil the maggots
This blindness hurts
EMPTINESS
That steel yoke
The bondage of friendships
With strings attached
The pain of betrayal
14

15. The sunshine of acquaintances
That I shall bask in
Taste the bliss of solitude
The hermit in the crowd
IN DEFIANCE OF LESSONS
Pornography legalized
In that protracted fight
The diversionary tactics
The shortages back stage
The hypocrisy exposed
Who now throws the stone
In defiance of those lessons
Adulterers now throw stones
The logs in their eyes
The speck in others’ eyes
Show me the clean ones
Hypocrites to the marrow
COMPROMISE ABANDONED
Then I will be smote
Blows and kicks of truth
Reality will be unmasked
Ignorance is not bliss
Am not for the dung heap
Through the ravages of time
It will not be time for rose petals
The prickly thorns out of sight
With mud and spittle give me sight
This farce must now end
The grass trampled by elephants
The monstrosity of the fight
THE POISON OF TRINKETS
This deep revulsion
Their greed at its root
The love for trinkets
Creating the deep chasm
Obliterating the social links
I will not dine with them
Enough anger to last a life time
They fed me on loads of it
15

16. Where is the cure for this soul
There is no need for a cure
At the root of it the righteous indignation
RIVER IN FLOOD
Spare me for great things
This river is in flood
Across, the children will go
The ominous logs going downstream
The children must be spared
This river is in flood
Some will drown in it
Let us get across safely
DEVIL’ SNACK
It was meant to be that way
Destiny had to hold sway
It was only a question of time
That blood had to be shed
You went in too deep
That is the way of the mafia
Many will face that dark night
Another night of the long knives
The murders become addictive
That is the securocracy way
There seems to be no end in sight
An invitation to the devil’ banquet
Then you end up as a snack
THE EXECUTIONER QUESTIONED
Tell me how you sleep
Do you sleep in tranquility?
Do you have succulent dreams?
At peace with your creator
Not startled by cold sweat
With blood congealing screams
Piercing your ear drums
Tell me how do you sleep?
Wailing widows in the background
Widowers assailed by agony
The heart rending wails of the orphans
All those yearning for revenge
Itching to hang you
16

17. The noose around your shrivelled balls
Just tell me how you sleep
As you continually smite your conscience
Have you ever had a conscience?
All those murders and celebrations
Your shrewd manipulation exhibited
Cheered on by your pawns
Tell me how do you sleep?
LESSONS IN PATIENCE
Life in the cocoon
Tortoise in the shell
Inching forward
The destination to be reached
Chameleon blending
Perfection in the camouflage
Caution is not hesitancy
The destination is to be reached
YOUR REDEMPTION
Pages of revelations turned
Profuse apologies made
What was it revealed to you?
The bared fangs you saw
That was your chance
Evading you for over a score
What are the lessons learnt
Those gates you tried to open
It was never too late
It was never mission impossible
Did you wave the magic wand?
Did you wipe clean the slate?
ADDRESS TO MY SUBJECTS
I am the sun
At times scorching the earth
Making you die of hunger
I am the sun
The moon cannot be without me
17

18. I am the invincible one
Cross my path at your peril
Hungry crocodiles will be fed
Many have been disembowelled
I deliver lightning blows
Shattering all foes to smithereens
Deep in your hearts I instill fear
A roaring lion is child’s play
I am the cat among the rats
Refuge they seek in every nook and cranny
I am the alpha and the omega
I am a descendant of Cain
I will never be my brother’s keeper
I am a disciple of Macchiavelli
The blood of Narcissus is in my veins
Lessons in brutality I mastered
Your blood is my cherished wine
Your tears and sweat are the rain
My fields shall always bear fruit
BLAME GAME
Where is the succulence
Graves out of sugar
Blame it on shortages
Glaring shortage of love
Life has become too cheap
Each one to his or her designs
In the jaws of this roaring lion
This storm of self preservation
That is the bottom line
MY SOMALI KITH AND KIN
Lean and hungry faces
Somalis at the South African border
Many miles away from home
What home to talk about
Thread bare sweat drenched clothes
African children running away
Feuding war lords back home
See the social dislocation
No time to bury the dead
Victims of power hungry monsters
18

19. See the hidden hand in this
Wake up from this sickly slumber
Africa wake up now, wake up
Your children long for peace
For good governance they yearn
Heal these fractured lives
That African laughter should resonate
This now is peace and justice time
MARECHERA VINDICATED
Now you are vindicated
The hunger and the drought
Thought the chapter was closed
The sting in those words
That play – The toilet
Now nothing to queue for
This barrenness all around
Poverty holds us by our throats
Shelves full of toilet paper
Very few defecate any more!
Dambudzo Marechera- that prophetic voice
ANOTHER MOSES
Through trials and tribulations
Through the foggy times
Over the pits they dig
Over their wicked snares
The rough rocky road
You have been my armour
Forgiving me for my ingratitude
Some by the wayside fell
To see another day I have lived
Here I am Lord to serve you
Hear my people wailing
Give me the strength of Moses
For the confrontation with Pharaoh
DREAMS
Bereft of dreams
Dreams bashed by truncheons
19

20. Dreams under the jack boots
Jack boots of the philistines
Dreams in solitary confinement
Dreams whimpering for freedom
That is the healing of this nation
A CRUSADE
Kindred spirits
On hotel balcony
In our blood it runs
That sacred herb
Demonised by the shitstem
Unthinking adherence to colonialism
Free the herb
Alcohol destroying the nation
Enriching the wicked ones
Free the herb now
BARREN WINDS
And the bickering begins
The moaning a smoke screen
The heavy weight of deception
Disguised tears of merriment
The material possessions beckon
The vicious hyena type fights
Maybe the maggots fight too
Din of doubt in my mind
Gaining the world and losing souls
POLY TRICKS
At the centre the kleptocracy
Next to it the securocracy
Hear the vibrations of violence
The stealing and the killing
Then you think you matter
A mere pawn in the game
Just a blind sacrificial lamb
That is the way of the cunning
FREEDOM COME
These caged thoughts
Thoughts in the dungeons
20

21. Those under the censor’s boot
Proceeding with this caution
The thoughts behind the veil
Yearning for free flight
Restrained by the philistines
THIS JOURNEY
Dead rat smell socks
Sucking my sleep away
Bass snoring not out done
The occasional loud fart
This testing of tolerance
On the tracks the steel wheels
In pursuit of my dreams
In pursuit of their dreams
Still on the long journey
A stolen train ride
Cigarette selling for survival
Even the bootlegging is here
A hot, fierce battle here
Stern faced security guard
Cat and mouse games here
This journey is long
BROKEN HEARTS
These are not matters rational
Logic has no place here
Even the wise fall
The mighty fall too
Even fools fall in love
Many are the broken hearts
See all these shards
Pick the broken pieces
There is another heart
Another heart to be broken
CLEANING UP
Broom thoughts of the past
Broom thoughts of today
What about the future
Sweeping away dead leaves
Dead leaves of bad thoughts
21

22. Relationships under the microscope
Clearing the path ahead
SEE THE LIGHT
The rape continues unabated
The darkness there everywhere
The duping must go on , see
Pretenders to the throne at it
The ubiquitous charlatans, see
The tragicomedy unfolding still
This prophet dabbling in patience
The exorcism is yet to be done
The rented crowd at it everywhere
Defiling that sacred blood again
The cleansing time is at hand
See them defying forces of gravity
Marching ominously through the streets
Oblivious of thread bare clothes
Oblivious of shoe-less feet
These stories shall guide us
ROOTS OF EVIL
Built on black blood
That is the foundation
Today they still hold on
Fanning fires of strife
Looting the blood diamonds
Black sweat, tears and blood
In the glass, steel and concrete houses
That is the root of their wealth
Behind all this strife
That hidden hand at work
To this add the avarice
REPATRIATION
To the four corners of the earth
Everywhere the children scattered
Deserting the once warm hearth
The once warm hearth of home
Fleeing from the choking ashes
Enduring the shocking social dislocation
The hideous xenophobia facing
Of home dreaming always
22

23. SOME DRUNKARDS
What is it about power?
That leads to defying gravity
That leads to the defying of logic
When what goes around comes around
‘Not in a thousand years’
That bandit said so
Inebriated by his own image
A disciple of Narcissus
‘Till donkeys have horns’
That was someone else
Listen now to this one drunk on power
‘Till the son of man returns’
What is it about power?
PATRIOTS
Listen to the hollow talk
Learn these lessons well
About the empty vessels
Listen to these masters
Masters of double speak
Their forked tongues at it
There among the imperialists
Drinking from alien wells
Teaching us lessons in patriotism
Trashing our institutions
The lice sucking our blood
It is time for stock taking
THE BIGGER PICTURE
A spark here
Then some smoke
A flame there
See an inferno
Streams today
Rivers tomorrow
Then someone drowned
23

24. A monkey fell off a tree
A hippo drowned
Surprise, surprise, surprise
EXPOSED AGAIN
Hypocrisy stares at you
There it is in the mirror
Blame not the mirror
It is your face that is askew
The mirror is the fairest of them all
Those pimples it will not hide
My belly I will fill then
You will do the same when I die
That is not the issue at stake
Pedestal placed is your hypocrisy
Pedestal placed is your sense of belonging
Shut your mouth shameless louse
IN THE FORGE
That day of righteous indignation
That day is dawning
That day of freedom is nigh
The new lessons are to be learnt
Call it violence if you will
The slaves have nothing to lose
For too long the chains have been here
Listen to the songs of redemption
FLOWING RIVER
The river of time flows
Dragging the logs of pain
Dragging the logs of betrayal
At times submerging them
At times just a trickle
Then the flood comes
The river of time flows
In it not one swims twice
That is the essence of life
That too is the essence of death
What is behind the mystery of déjà vu
At times the waves of regret
The waves of profound sorrow
The calming waters of bliss
24

25. The river of time flows
The shaky dams of time cannot hold it
TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION
Down memory lane
Through all that pain
For healing this nation
That is the challenge
For truth and reconciliation
Those hideous secrets reveal
Those shallow graves
The disused mine shafts
For the healing of the perpetrator
For healing the battered survivor
For the souls of the victims
This story must be told
The future demands appeasement
SINGLE TRACK MINDS
They will not listen
Never, never, never
For they will be smote
Steel blows of truth
Their hypocrisy exposed
Torrents of brutality
That they resort to
Their double speak exposed
Followers of Narcissus
Drowning in their shame
Listening to their discordant voices
Ignoring melodies of divergence
HOME, SWEET HOME
Emaciated shadows
This barrenness
This dry season
Cacti everywhere
Rustling dry leaves
25

26. This whirlwind
Broken dreams
Fractured lives
Torrents of despair
Harbinger of hope
BLACK SUNLIGHT
Black sunlight on the rise
Shining in this abyss
Abyss of white supremacy
In every nook and cranny
Soothing breeze of humanity
The cradle of civilisation
This one dimensional world
The end of emasculation is nigh
BLAZING FIRE
Who will put out this fire?
Started by unbridled greed
Their lessons you learnt too well
Even surpassing your diabolic teachers
That avarice you exhibited
Riding on the aspirations of the landless
Those eking a living from the barren soils
Those seeing hope in their emaciated livestock
Those out of grim necessity destroying flora and fauna
Then you shouted empty slogans
Greedily grabbing vast tracts of land
The landless continue to wallow in poverty
Who will put out this fire
Egoli - place of gold[ Johannesburg]
Amai – mother
Shitstem –shit system
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