This document contains a collection of poems addressing various political and social issues in Africa. The poems touch on themes of oppression, corruption, injustice, poverty, and the struggle for freedom and democracy. They pay tribute to activists and leaders who fought against oppression, and criticize politicians and leaders who have betrayed the people's trust or failed to improve their lives.

1. YEARNING VOICES
To P.K
Your part you played
A standing ovation this is
Those sacrifices in Zambia
You could have chosen comfort
Relative middle class comfort
On the side of the down trodden
You, Joshua Nkomo and others
The dangers of enemy fire present
Parcel bombs, car bombs and other weapons
The racist regime had to be dislodged
You will never walk alone
Ndabaningi Sithole is there with you
Many they have hated passionately
You dared to sing those dirges
Forsaking the fruits of sycophancy
Posterity will treasure these living lessons
]dedicated to the late Patrick Kombayi[
SENTENCED TO DEATH
The euphoria died down
Then you saw their colours
Hunted with the hounds
They had run with the hares
The opportunists were at it
Champions of our struggle
Assuming high sounding titles
Rewarding the praise singers
The ideals came off the rails
The profound pain you felt
Then you spoke against evil schemes
Their wrath you incurred
The hot lead shattered your life
You had dared to tell the truth
That was the offence you committed
The death penalty it carried
Torment them in your death
THE OMINOUS CHASMS

2. A deluge of questions
Not one answer forth coming
The many battles you fought
What was at the root of it all
Will I ever understand it
Maybe in just in just one dream
Perhaps in another's confession
What was the root of the lamentations
That you found love in another tribe
Was it to do with her assertiveness
Everyone of them remains mum
The ominous chasm plain to see
The rifts there for everyone to see
FRIENDS OR FOES
Behind that hollow laughter
The hyenas ready to pounce
They dig pits in my way
Their machinations plain to see
Behind those plastic smiles
The Judas Iscariot kiss
They want me nailed
For the truth is an offence
The vultures hovering around
Only to find no carrion here
Because of the truth I say
They want me out of the way
WANTED
They congregate in evil places
Hatching their evil schemes
Against them I have committed a crime
My crime is to expose their evil schemes
Schemes to worship the devil
I have to fly without perching
The archers are sharpening their arrows
They are learning to shoot without missing
I will not be a sitting duck for them
They seek to assassinate and eliminate me
THRIVING ON FEAR

3. Two sides of the same coin
On podiums and pulpits
Exalting themselves always
Politicians and priests steeped in lies
Promises made never fulfilled
Spreading the web of fear
Angling for hearts and minds
YEARNING FOR LIBERTY
We created Frankenstein
Some actively made the parts
In your graves do you hear me
Others chose to be in deathly silence
When they could speak out loudly
Frankenstein then started the rampage
Devouring mothers, children and fathers
Devouring his creators without mercy
A web of fear spread
There Frankenstein thrived
Frankenstein must now be chained
The ghosts of the past must be exorcised
The time for deafening silence is up
To smithereens we blow Frankenstein
The nation must now sing and dance
STILL BORN
Someone put the cart before the horse
Another handled food with dirty hands
A doctor used a rusty scalpel on the patient
The result was an obvious death
At the end an avoidable death
Voices spoke in unison then
Their usual arrogance blinded them
Self proclaimed champions of our struggle
Yet another derailment looming
We must go down the disused mine shafts
Talk to the time-white bones down there
No more dust to be swept under the carpet
Appease all the angry spirits
Open up all those shallow graves
Accept responsibility for the atrocities
Stand on moral high ground and preach

4. DAVID DEAD STONE*
In ominous silence
There before your discovery
Your out of place imposing statue
There before that distinct rumbling
The rumbling of mosi-oa-tunya
The baTonga did not matter
That name refused to die
Under the English dead weight
The English dead weight of Victoria
Your queen could not take precedence
Mine was righteous indignation
Stood there and told you the truth
Your imposing statue at that place
That out of place statue
*David Livingstone
POLY TRICKSTERS
Tired of poly tricksters
Conmen games everywhere
The ruling elites stink
The air is polluted
Everywhere their empty talk
The same old song
Broken and unfulfilled promises
Too many con- artists
No leaders in sight
Poly tricksters everywhere
Sucking the nation dry
Insensitive to our suffering
Wining and dining on our behalf
OUT OF BONDAGE
The light of liberty is shining
Why are you seated in the darkness
The darkness of forces of oppression
Hear the sweet sound of freedom
Calling you to throw away the burdens
The burdens of your service to evil

5. Exorcise the ghosts of your past
Come out of the closet
Unchain your mind now
Come confess about the murders
Come now free yourself from rape
All those heinous crimes
There lies your liberty
A BATTERED NATION
This sad and sick nation
In dire need of healing
The shocking levels of violence
Aftermath of lessons in brutality
Learnt over a very long time
The scars quite evident
All the sadism exhibited
The demonic forces of brutality
With truncheons dispatching terror
Finding satisfaction in inflicting pain
This sick and sad nation
In dire need of moral regeneration
Law enforcement agents breaking the law
Breaking the law with impunity
Who are we now to turn to
This nation needs healing
THE BARE FACTS
They hate my guts
For they know the truth
They hide behind fingers
My mission is not over
No justice for the poor
While the rich buy their way out
Buying their way out of jail
But then the wicked must suffer
Good men and women must confront evil
Ready even to die for the truth
That is the price to be paid
For they congregate in evil places
Wining and dining with the devil
Those hurdles are not insurmountable
Their invincibility is a myth
The vigilance of my maker is here
TO THAT FIGHTER
To that bar you took your ideals
Challenging the stereotyping

6. A woman alone in the bar
There among the many men
Sipping your beer
Defying their gazing at you
As though you were some UFO
You were just yourself
Not a guinea pig in a feministic experiment
That respect you earned
Never cadging a beer from them
Never expecting to be treated like a victim
Standing firm and singing your own song
Accept my apologies if I erred
With your thick dreadlocks flowing
You found your own space
Live then in the full knowledge
That some sat up and listened
]Christine Nleya[
YOUR COOKING
Woman , I enjoyed your cooking
When I yearn for more
Blame not at all
Yours was a special dish
That no one should ever taste
That was a tasty dish
That I will never have enough of
The inexplicable succulence of that dish
Woman you perfected your art
INGRATITUDE
The blows and kicks
Of your ingratitude
Those do not bother me
My skeleton on the outside
The lesson of old holds sway
Out of those ten
Only one expressed his gratitude
That is how it is to this day
FAMILY FEUDS
At times I stand aloof
Letting time take control
Providing lasting solutions
Complicated involvement avoiding
Withdrawing into this cocoon
Thanks to the poetry

7. Retaining my sanity still
Drawn into those battles
The roots not known to me
The origins of this bickering
Coming up with this and that theory
Fighting and running away to live again
STILL UNDER SIEGE
With that steely determination
That home you built
Driven always by that modesty
Not chasing after ill gotten gains
Did you labour in vain then
There are those latent forces
That home now pulling down
Turn it into a termite’s paradise
Those teachings in ecclesiastes true
There are profound lessons here
The river of time flows still
That feuding continues unabated
Caught in the eye of a storm
A torrent of blows and kicks
That dark cloud shall pass
OF THIEVES AND CHIEFS
Shocking buffoonery exhibited
In this seemingly never ending drama
The tragi-comedy bedevilling this nation
Now in the band wagon of avarice
That institution turned to rubbish
Its usefulness it has outlived
Listen to them aping their masters
Posh imported cars along dusty tracks
Those silly helicopter rides
Those crumbs from their masters’ tables
Fast turning chiefs into thieves
That shocking buffoonery exhibited
BEREFT OF LEADERS
In their eyes it is impossible
Wickedness will just prevail
It will only be for a little while

8. That time shall soon come
The houses built on the sand
Their collapsing is now imminent
You were long told of king owl’s horns
That time is now at hand
Trees are now bearing fruit
God fearing leaders now arise
These demons are to be exorcised now
Rivers of blood shall not flow again
The future is now at the threshold
THOUGHT TRACKS
After the mask of hypocrisy
Has been by reality shredded
The truth will walk stark naked
Much to the chagrin of the pretenders
That is when it dawns on you
This life drama has no script
The sweetness is in the spontaneity
It is in seizing the particular moment
The futility of pigeon holing
Thought police cannot arrest this
No dam to hold back these thoughts
Efforts at censorship put to shame
IN THE FAST LANE
The post man given a hefty kick
A hefty kick in the arse
The pre-patched pair of trousers
Technology kicked him off the streets
No more letters in stylish handwriting
The e-mail address took over
Then someone brought face book
Now they talk of skype
Mesmerized by all this technology
Lost in the technological jungle
e-mail, video conferencing, skype
ah what next then
RAZED
That fire of infidelity
That mansion razed

9. The ruins plain to see
Children like a ping pong ball
Parents in a tug of war
Down that steep slope
Into manic depression
Seeking solace in cocktails
Cocktails of cocaine, heroin, mandrax
The cataclysm is here
That mansion razed
The deep chasms on the pedestal
Saying prayers to the devil
The ominous emptiness here
The ruins of a family
DEBATING
Deafening sounds of sycophancy
Our minds repeatedly smote
Propaganda machinery unleashed
Putting a stop to that vital debate
Never voted for my father
Their warped talk about culture
No sun rises before another sets
Never voted for those kings
FRET NOT
Their usual refrain
Their grab and steal
Killing with impunity
Their dark deeds
Protected by the devil
Their ill gotten gains
Stench of corruption
No peace in the mansions
Tormented by the wailing
The wailing of the poor
That innocent blood shed
No peace at all there
Tormented by their wickedness
HIGH SOUNDING EMPTINESS
Just a fistful of dust

10. Maybe a handful of ashes
The ultimate position
Stripped of high sounding titles
The bare essentials on the pedestal
Born of a woman
By way of natural delivery
Maybe by caesarean section
The mindless ostentation exhibited
Lessons in humility forgotten
Drowned in that euphoria
The euphoria of assumed titles
The high sounding emptiness
THE HEAT IS ON
Congregating in evil places
Just to plot evil schemes
To shed this innocent blood
They shall not prosper
Their evil schemes will prevail
But only for a little while
For my maker is a fighter
Not against flesh and blood
They shall soon be smitten
It was a sling and a stone
Little david slew goliath
Bury them now in their own pits
BLOCKED EARS
Then Vincent Ford ‘wrote’ them
‘Composed’ those great lyrics
You put the passion into it
The world sang along
The world still sings along
Where are you Bob Marley
What of the ‘composer’ Vincent Ford
The job is yet to be completed
‘No woman no cry’ still misunderstood
Never the lyrics of a misogynist
Telling a woman not to cry
Assuring her everything will be okay
Still many do not get it today
Listening skills at an all time low

11. IN THE CREVICES
Brimming with buffoonery
He came out of the closet
A foul mouthed idiot
Forgetting his glass jaw
Many in the crevices
Waiting for a non existent victory
They will get a whacking
The time for that is nigh
KILLERS ON THE PROWL
The story will fall into place
The pieces of a jigsaw puzzle
The lips of the righteous will teach many
Fools will die for want of wisdom
My maker shall protect me
The mouths of the wicked are open
That warrior blood will rise
Now it is needed the most
The killers bay for my blood
That mighty force shall shame them
THE ANNIHILATION
That fake smile is gone
The predator snarl is out
Now we are at daggers drawn
Run wicked one run
Take refuge before its too late
Your empty talk gets you nowhere
Your troops shall be annihilated
STILL FIGHTING
I will not raise my hand
Raise my hand against them
These disciples of Lucifer
They have incurred the wrath
The wrath of my maker

12. For they shed innocent blood
Forever they shall be cursed
Not everyone will be fooled
Reason will have to prevail
Evil cannot prosper forever
The noose tightens around their necks
THE ODD MAN OUT
They reduced it to a commodity
That is what they did to justice
They removed that blind folding
Exposing that goddess to wealth
Justice was put up for sale
All sorts of price tags were put
Then I spoke against all this
A mortal enemy I was then branded
There was the nudity of it all
There was not a trace of shame
That system was falling to pieces
Someone had to be sacrificed
TO A DIM WIT
A sad chapter in this story
This story of my life
You were just a stain
To be bloated out of sight
You wove a tall tale
Could not even mask the lies
Then you incurred their wrath
Trying to belittle their minds
Now you wallow in shame
You could not win mind games
Your foul mouth now imprisons you
Your buffoonery now on a pedestal
ON MY WAY
Pursuing my ideals
With maniacal zeal
They will be after me
For standing in their way

13. The way to ill gotten gains
The path of destruction
Never expecting a pat on the back
But an arrow through the heart
There is a price tag
Justice is up for sale
Hear the trumpet of triumph
The vanquished drown in their tears
THEIR FOOLISHNESS
What is the root of this foolishness
This very dangerous foolishness
Killing your own kith and kin
Much to the amusement of detractors
Yearning to be hewers of wood
Still crying out to be drawers of water
Crying out for menial jobs
Derailing that struggle for resources
THE HUNTED ONE
Thought the grass was greener
Greener on the other side
Without bidding farewell you left
The scythe of squalor decimating lives
You could not just be a sitting duck
An economic exile they termed you
It was deeper than they could fathom
You did not want to be a caged bird
How then could you bid farewell
The poison tipped arrows are still here
SCATTERED
Everything working like clock work
Ready for all the romp and pomp
Friends and foes ready to feast
The African laughter resonating
For you were back to this land
The land of your ancestors
Then death struck on the eleventh hour

14. GUTTED
The fiery fire of infidelity
Gutted the spacious mansion
What remained was an empty eggshell
Bereft of the yolk and egg white
There were threats of suicide
There were threats of trigger squeezing
No plaster of Paris to mend the fracture
The blows landed heavily on children
Some found solace in hard drugs
Others plunged into the cesspool of lunacy
Illusions and delusions in the driving seat
TIME HAS COME
With my bare feet I stand
Stand on this burial ground
Before each grave I stand
There lies my grandfather
Here too is my grandmother
My father lies here too
Then I invoke those spirits
That fight will be protracted
Run wicked one for I am here
You shall be weighed in the balance
You shall be found wanting
Innocent blood should not be shed
OUT OF GRIM NECESSITY
The grinding poverty here
The larvae burdened water
The elusive foreign currencies
Lies told to get food aid
Out of grim necessity
Tired soils yielding nothing
The heavy rock of poverty
Weighing heavily on their shoulders
The axe wreaking havoc
Out of grim necessity
Queues for never arriving grain trucks
The politics of food at play
Souls put up for sale here
‘hunger in the belly rose to the brain’

15. Out of that grim necessity
UNTITLED THOUGHTS
Not totally deflowered by technology
No addictive internet here
A cell phone here another one there
The occasional motor vehicle passing by
Cattle bells clanging in the distance
The village cocks exchanging greetings
Doves cooing up there in the trees
Voices broadcasting news from out there
Voices whimpering under the rock of exile
These thoughts yearning to find expression
Dying to reach out to others out there
JUSTICE FOR SALE
The poor will not have justice
The price to be paid has soared
Soared out of reach like a bird of prey
There is no justice for the poor
The goddess has removed the blind fold
Now blinded by United States dollars
Now also blinded by the Rand
The souls of officials are up for sale
The poor will yearn for justice
The rich use officers like door mats
Murderers get away with murder
Rapists buy their way out of jail
The poor continue to be the victims
The victims of their poverty
The rich commit crimes with impunity
The poor’s rights are trampled on
The scandalous are cheered on
Court officials in the mafia strangle hold
Laughing all the way to the banks
Enjoying all those empty trinkets
The goddess of justice has been raped
The blind fold has been removed
The goddess is now blind to justice
BUNS IN THE PAN
The whole heap of them
They are steeped in it
The race for self aggrandizement
The craving for the fruits of power

16. Raping the minds of the poor
They are cut from the same cloth
Everyday spewing all the propaganda
Lies are packaged as the truth
The media is on a tight leash
Singing the praise songs for bread
All we hear is ‘Power to the people’
Yet the people remain emasculated
Confused by systems created by the rulers
To serve the elite and their hounds
The schemes are plain to see
GIVING BIRTH
My mind is in labour
The pain is getting worse
The baby is on the way
Could be a full term baby
Or one destined for the incubator
The pain of a still born one
The pain is getting worse
The waiting will not be long
The naming is on the way
That is the icing on the cake
The pain gives way to joy
STAYING AFLOAT
The poetry keeps me afloat
Saving me from the depths
The depths of the murky water of frustration
Deriving happiness in sadness
Hope available in large doses
This poem keeping me afloat
All the shackles and chains around
Finding freedom in my mind
Thought police cannot touch this
At times am a dove in the sky
At times a mountain echoing voices
Yours, mine, everyone’s voices
Experimenting with the images

17. Subverting all strictures around
Finding satisfaction in creativity
DIM THE LIGHT
The multitudes will use that road
Built on years of lies
The path of truth will be overgrown
Overgrown by thistles and thorns
They detest travelling along it
They will blame the mirror
For their faces are askew
Obsessed with all those praises
The high sounding empty titles
Sycophants singing those praises
Hear the dirges out there
The fools are followed everywhere
Leading the gullible into precipices
The fate of visionaries is known
This light can never be dimmed
TRAPPED
There have been many attacks
All kinds of vermin at it
But my skeleton is on the outside
Their schemes bear no fruit
Steeped in a messy disaster
That day will soon come
We are now in the count down
The spider will be trapped in its web
FRUITS OF FAILURE
Behind it all
The hidden hand
The greed and corruption
Aftermaths of failure
The genocide in Rwanda
Someone somewhere profiting
The catastrophe in Somalia
The total destruction
The fighting in Ethiopia
The oil driven fights
Internecine strife in Nigeria
In the jungles of the DRC

18. Blood diamonds fuelling conflict
The dust under the carpet
The truth yearning to surface
Dust covered reports in Zimbabwe
The stench of xenophobia in South Africa
Africa in dire need of healing
Needing more mature leadership
THE CONFRONTATION
The maggots feasting on the truth
Behind that anthill in the bush
That man dared to confront the rot
The mafia had to conceal the evidence
Cover myself with a blanket of fear
That could never be an option
Trample my own conscience I refuse
The minotaurs should be bludgeoned
*]Captain Edwin Nleya[
MOUNTAINS OF SHAME
The height of gullibility
To fall for those plastic smiles
Behind those fake smiles
The snarl of predators
Masters of intrigue brought to shame
Time has no master
The deeper they bury the truth
The more it yearns to surface
Postponing the inevitable
That exercise in futility
Standing on mountains of shame
Their ways plain to see
HAITI
That is the way of the world
The altruism just surfaces
In the face of death and destruction
The shameful exhibited philanthropy
There before foreign television crews
Haiti you have always been alone
Down there under the weight of poverty
See the abundance of friends now
Now you are headline news

19. That is the way of the world
TORTURE CHAMBERS
Regrets presiding over the inquisition
In the torture chambers of past hurts
The subconscious relentlessly whacked
Blood curdling screams shatter the present
Shards of broken hearts there everywhere
The ghosts of the past stoutly refusing
Stoutly refusing to yield to the future
There a fresh dawn yearning to sprout
Time healing those broken hearts
The tide of pain is on the ebb
TAKEN FOR GRANTED
There in their ivory towers
They take us for granted
They forget the past
The roots of that struggle
The workers, students, subsistence farmers
All taken for granted by the rulers
The unexplained power cuts
The water supplies just disconnected
Our thoughts drowned in speculation
Relying on rumours and gossip
The fear that rules our lives
That will jolt us into action
WOMAN
Stand up and liberate yourself
Throw off that yoke
That yoke of silly values
Pull that chair for yourself
Open that car door too
That silly label throw out
Be a fighter not a lady
There is a price to be paid
Show me what is for free
Then the chains I will show you
I will show you the bondage

20. Get up woman liberate yourself
Refuse to be pampered
Do not seek to be a man
Your identity as a woman forge
The rabid feminism throw out
The chains of dependence sever
For your bread toil now
The sanctity of your body restore
Never again to be a sex object
Take charge of your sexuality
That curvaceous body is not for sale
Never an avenue for those trinkets
Liberate yourself right now
Pray not to self made gods
Throw away those mental crutches
Fight the second class citizen status
An indelible mark leave now
HEED THE CALL
That blood of slain heroes and heroines
Do you hear it calling now
Those contradictions apparent
Seeking refuge in Europe
Fleeing from kith and kin
Where did the derailment begin
A generation of semi-literates
Teacher come and intervene
These pock marked roads
Engineer heed the call
Our people dying in droves
Doctor pack your bags now
Treated like dregs out there
Take leave of them now
The xenophobia and racism
Think of the home you left
The fire gobbling this home
Come help put out the fire

21. Those voices wailing out here
Those derailed ideals call
Artist come back home now
The hills , valleys and plains are here
The sickening emasculation evident
Transfer that power back to the people
THE GLUTTONS
Tired of the gluttons
The double chins prominent
The obscene full bellies
Clamouring for real change
Another crop of opportunists
No respite for the down trodden
Those ideals shelved again
Propagating the false consciousness
The wailing rural masses forgotten
Carrying on like beasts of burden
The opportunists at it again
THE RESPONSE
When they dug pits in my way
When wickedness seemed to hold sway
When my name the dragged in the mud
Severely assaulting my integrity
What was I to do
Stand there and be kicked
Sit there and be humiliated
Sit there like a clay pigeon
Be there and gobble up the shit
And wash it down with urine
Sit and rest in the lap of cowardice
Go down on my knees and beg
Beg for forgiveness from the villains
Or maybe turn the other cheek
Turn the other cheek and get a back hander
The response lies in your empathy
SAD STRIP SHOW
Those secret places exposed
Those twin peaks swinging, swaying
That dark patch of pubic hair
Then they called her raving mad

22. The men and their cat calls
The crowd of men swelling around her
They called it a free for all strip tease
Their eyes almost popping out of their orbits
Feeling their womanhood exposed
Her birth suit covered by unwanted clothes
Those secret places out in the open
Then they called her raving mad
OFF THE HIGH TABLE
Courted by politicians
The poet leads the way
Like earth moving machinery
The poet paves the way
The ululation pierces the air
The whistling resonates
The poet takes centre stage
Basking in the spotlight
When the wining and dining comes
The poet relegated to the crumbs
Prohibited from the main road
The earth moving machinery
TECHNOLOGY AND MAN
Will I be lost in the crowd
That invisible crowd on face book
Or is it the tagged crowd
Am I turning into a recluse
Or is it an internet junkie
I resisted the false allure of gambling
Never went for hard drugs
The dangers were all too obvious
Am I set to be a hermit
Exhibiting anti-social traits
OUR HOME
In Haiti
In Chile
Thousands buried
Under mounds of concrete
Lives lost
Humanity baffled

23. Is this our home
Are we passing through
Was it Jim Reeves
Singing of a home elsewhere
Stories of tragedies
Wars and rumours of wars
Unbridled looting everywhere
The selfishness exhibited
GOLD RUSTS
Then your mind is scorched
Long after the bribe is taken
Your reputation will be in tatters
For you valued silver and gold
What the happens to your conscience
Do you not feel the emptiness
Do you not smell the rottenness
When you sit alone at home
What price have you put on your soul
That these low lives can buy it
Are you not haunted by ghosts of misdeeds
Judas Iscariot became judge, jury, executioner
In your wisdom you wine and dine
Wine and dine with the villains
The victims have no one to turn to
If gold rusts what of iron
CORRUPTION
Thomas Mapfumo you sang of it
You saw it rear its ugly head
Jah Solo , ah man you saw it
That was kindergarten stuff
Now the maggots are here
The social fabric is in tatters
They become pimps for their mothers
There are no souls left here
Wealth is amassed by any means
The truth causes offence
Organized crime is now big business
The just are to be persecuted

24. DESCENDANTS OF ISCARIOT
That emptiness I feel
Assaulted by your betrayal
Deranged by errors of your way
Under a deluge of questions
A direct descendant of Judas Isacriot
Am I a victim of your viper’ s kiss
Ran with the hares and hunted with the hounds
Deep inside I feel the emptiness
You went for thirty pieces of silver
You took the path to destruction
That noose tightens around your neck
Your wretched life shall be extirpated
FRUITS OF CHOICES
Take care in clamouring for freedom
For it may lead to free doom
You may walk down that road
The road leading into an abyss
Drench your mind in alcohol
Enjoy the cigarette smoke mists
Engage in weird sex and drugs experiments
Alone enjoy the fruits of your choices
Thomas Mapfumo
Jah solo[Solomon Skuza[
Both Zimbabwean musicians who sang songs denouncing rampant corruption
RASTAFARI
Consciousness raising powerful force
A struggle for emancipation
Constant reminder of the worst crime
The enslavement of the melanin man
At the forefront condemning injustice
Spreading the message of love and redemption
Linking Africans at home and in the diaspora
In support of revolutionary struggles
MODERN DAY DELILAH
Delilah get out of my way

25. Read your mind too well
Though I am under your spell
Your wicked ways shall not rule
Read your mind too well
Then I played the fool
A past master in the game
That is what I am
Through your sweet emptiness
Seeking to derail my ways
The ways pursued with ferocious zeal
That scheme will not work
CHIP OFF THE OLD BLOCK
Am a chip off the old block
The stone the builder refused
Now become the head corner stone
In his life time reviled
Now you run to his fruits
Seeking favours from rejected ones
The door is bolted tight
The hand of reconciliation you bit
Please shed no tears now
No use crying over spilt milk
You allowed your cacti thoughts room
MARRIAGE
The rose in full bloom
The sweetness of its fragrance
The allure of the pink petals
The allure of the red petals
Then the thorns take centre stage
The beauty of petals is drowned
The pricking dents that beauty
Then deep revulsion sets in
IRRETRIEVABLE BREAK DOWN
Too many cracks in the wall
Tried to use steel reinforcement
Plastered the wall again
Cracks developed yet again
Tried to use steel reinforcement
Plastered and re-painted the wall

26. Too many cracks in this wall
Maybe time to demolish the wall
For it may fall on the children
Then we will take to wallowing in regret
Is this not the time to demolish the wall
CAPTURING THE GLOOM
Cacti thoughts in the mind
With my parched throat
Walking on in this barren land
Nothing greets the eye here
Thorny bushes and aloe plants
The desolation growing here
PRAYERS FOR LUCIFER
Do you still have a conscience
Or is it you long lost your soul
Chasing after all the silver and gold
Displaying that mindless ostentation
Sister how do you afford to sleep
With those vampire thoughts in you
Hatching false testimony against me
Dragging my name through slime
What about you my dear brother
Congregating in evil places against me
Wining and dining with the devil
That day of reckoning is at hand
FEUDING ROOTS
Then there was the bliss
That resulted in my birth
I am not a product of rape
Nor am I a product of incest
Now I am a ping pong ball
The grass between two fighting elephants
My mind thrown into turmoil
All the bickering you drag me into
DECAYING DREAMS
Those dreams of the bright lights
The bright lights of Egoli
The streets are paved in gold
That myth pursued with vigour

27. Those dreams of the place of gold
The dreams lie in crocodile stomachs
Some dreams drowned in the Limpopo river
Others are in maggot infested corpses
Do the mothers and fathers sleep soundly
Do the nation builders have peace
Do they sleep peacefully in their mansions
Do they ride peacefully in their imported cars
The desolation and barrenness back home
In droves the children flee
Are the questions being asked
No light here but thick wintry darkness
THE SPENDING GENERATION
In their quest for the easy life
They have joined the hyenas
For good measure nicknaming themselves
Unashamedly calling themselves hyenas
The nocturnal predators they are
Pouncing on the lone drunkards
Sticking knives into the backs
The backs of lost travelers
Putting the sanctity of life into trash cans
Not cringing at the sight of blood
The generation that enjoys spending
Extolling the virtues of indolence
VEIL OF DARKNESS
Those menial jobs a lame excuse
Behind it all a grand design
Those tactics are still here
Those menial jobs are no panacea
No panacea to the grinding poverty
And the engulfing flood of crime
Africa your children weep and wail
Succumbing to divide and rule tactics
With mud and spittle give them sight
Forestall the heart rending ‘necklacing’
Expose the bloody beneficiaries of divisions
Rend now the dark veil of ignorance
TO BOB MARLEY

28. Out of great heat and pressure
The diamonds emerge
Drilling other metals
Others turned to jewellery
Out of the slums
Among the dregs of society
Someone termed it trench town
Among indescribable squalor
Defying the force of gravity
With that divine inspiration
They sat up and listened
Out of squalor came the gem
With other kindred spirits
Spreading those messages
The music hits us with no pain
Disturbing the neighbours still
Turning those attacks into songs
There was ambush in the night
The often misunderstood ‘ no woman no cry’
That uncanny ability to grasp issues
You warned the rulers in Zimbabwe
But did they take heed
‘no more internal power struggles’
Those lyrics haunt us still
WAKE UP CALL
We now have joined them
Branding our ways pagan
Non believers in what
Hot iron branded ‘uncivilised’
Now proudly propagating slavery
When my mother dies
When my fathers dies
Are they no longer my parents
Now excluded from one of the commandments
When are we going to wake up
Walk tall among others
Forsaking the derogatory names
Having pride like sand on the sea shore
ROLLER COASTER RIDE

29. Each one closeted
Closeted in dark thoughts
Dark, dank thoughts of anger
Tight knot of hurt
Entangled in disillusionment
Perhaps a flood of regrets
Tired of this bickering
This roller coaster ride
No end in sight
LIFE
Maybe in fairy tales
Perhaps in a fool’s paradise
Built on illusions and delusions
To live happily ever after
Coming across hills and mountains
Walking across plains too
The tumultuous and unnavigable rivers
At times swimming in calm waters
BOTTOMS UP
Making a mockery of merit
Rising to the top by arse licking
Selling their souls for a song
Sycophants singing for their bread
Selling their worthless bodies
Using their bottoms to go up
Trampling their own consciences
Making decisions out of emotions
Listen to this brutal frankness
The blind lead the one eyed
The consequences clear to babies, even
The shame of it sticks out like a sore thumb
SOCIETAL POISON
A poisonous mixture
A legal mind and poetry
Is anyone listening out there
Tell me Dr Eddison Zvobgo
Society takes the poison

30. Allowing poets to be lawyers
Letting poets , lawyers be politicians
That is the beginning of tragedy
REFLECTING
Those chains still there
Deeply embedded in the mind
The status quo maintained
Turned into drawers of water
Condemned to be hewers of wood
Squashed under that hegemony
Kept under the boot
Those unholy alliances
Keeping us in sewers of under-development
Those raw materials siphoned
The supervisor class promoted
Derailing the self determination ideals
AFRICA DAY INTROSPECTION
Behind it all
Our unmistakeable resilience
The abundance of hope
For we are no pessimists
The reality plain to see
Africa bleeding profusely
Fires of discord fanned
The beneficiaries in glee
Robbed of childhood
Playing fields bereft of children
High on LSD,heroin, mandrax
Raping , robbing, killing with impunity
The hidden hand at it
Propping unpopular, repressive regimes
The ever widening chasms
Bickering over foreign ideas
Africa bleeding profusely
Somewhere they drink the blood

31. The prophets long said it
The richest place; home to the poorest race
In Somalia, Sudan, Ethiopia
Everywhere the bloody feuding
The scramble for blood diamonds
Everywhere death and destruction
Beneath all this desolation
The undying hope sprouting
ROBBED OF INNOCENCE
Africa where are the children
Not anywhere near the playgrounds
Dying in droves in battle fields
Waging senseless wars everywhere
Minds befuddled by heavy drugs
Committing matricide, patricide and fratricide
Robbed by the greedy of their childhood
Denied the knowledge of the sanctity of life
Turning killing into an enjoyable game
CHALLENGES AHEAD
Not a potted plant
Never a caged bird
Not water in a dam
In the open ocean
Severing those chains
Savouring this liberation
My soul not for sale
Shunning their trinkets
Behind the meekness of the lamb
The deep lion roar
COLOUR BLIND
Someone got colour
Then labelled me black
And I accepted that colour blindness
That person again colour blind
Another one labelled white
They accepted that colour blindness

32. PERSECUTED
They nailed him to the cross
He had not harmed anyone
Never harmed even a fly
But they drove the nails in
Why should dreamers suffer
Why should the innocent die
Why should they be like garbage
To be thrown onto rubbish dumps
When one door is closed tight
Many more will be opened
There is a time for everything
Behind every season a reason
ANOTHER ATTACK
While you lived
A mortal foe you were
At every turn persecuted
Your ideas shamelessly stolen
Admiration mixed with revulsion
A revolution hijacked
A personality cult propagated
Sycophants singing for their bread
Creating non existent victories
Illusions emanating from delusions
HONOURABLE
Look through the muck for the honour
The multiple farm owning schemes
Sowing the weed seeds of evil dynasties
Resorting to sordid deeds to retain power
Those evil schemes bereft of honour
Look through the muck for honour
Resorting to grab and steal methods
Crushing dissenting voices under jack boots
Squashing skulls in the torture chambers
Maybe that is where the honour lies
RESOLVE
Waves of despondency rock this boat
The oars of hope will take it to the shore

33. Never to drown in this watery abyss
Rowing to the horizon of those ideals
This boat will not capsize
Surmounting those ravenous waves
Daily stalked by these predators
The boat will reach the shore
BUREAUCRATIC ARROGANCE
Wrenched from the marital bed
Thrown into the open jaws
The open jaws of temptations
There about to be crushed
To become part of the statistics
The dark cloud of arrogance
Acid raindrops of cold indifference
Insensitivity of typical bureaucrats
A naked exhibition of those traits
The shocking rift between word and deed
EARTHQUAKE OF THOUGHTS
Earthquake of deranging thoughts
In this tumultuous era
Bayonet thrusts of despair
The tree shaken by its roots
Tossed into this violent whirlwind
Drawing deeply from the spiritual dimension
Thinking of that once warm hearth
Now turned into ice cold ashes
In the vortex of this storm
Yearning for the feather bed of serenity
Donning the life jacket of hope
Surviving this deranging earthquake
AFRICAN DRUM
The demonized drum
Speaks to my soul
Soothing my African soul
Sweetly caressing it
Invoking those spirits
The restless spirits of my people
Hot iron branded pagan
Those that dangled at noose ends

34. Reverberations of the drum
Spelling out my happiness
At times messages of strife
The demonized drum
SCALING DIZZY HEIGHTS
It is not about what you know
Now it is about who you know
About warped political connections
Licking arse to scale dizzy heights
Sex in plush offices for high posts
Throw into the trash can
Brittle perceptions about merit
Those systems rotten to the marrow
Diarrhoea ideas running the show
Service delivery dealt a telling blow
DISCORDANT VOICES
His voice deemed discordant
Singing all the wrong songs
Not singing the usual praises
Violently shaking their consciences
Taking them out of the comfort zone
In a huff he packed his bags
Baying for his blood they were
The hounds had picked the scent
That audacious eye was too much
That discordant voice had to be silenced
REVOLUTION TIME AGAIN
Anyone out there listening
Out there taking notes
Of a revolution going on
Of the prophecy revealed
That prophecy comes to fruition
That blood letting is at hand
The fruit of unbridled greed
The hunger fast turning into anger
A FEW CRUMBS
Just a few crumbs
Falling off the high table

35. Master that is all I yearn for
Just a few crumbs
Not more than a few crumbs
PART OF THE STORY
On what moral high ground
Preaching democracy to the world
Making the Palestinians homeless
Elsewhere Roma people evicted
Blamed wholesale for crime
Torture chambers in Guantanamo
Making a mockery of those conventions
Hands stained with Saddam’s blood
Falsehoods about weapons of mass destruction
Blood thirsty military –industrial mafia
Cheap talk about freedom of worship
Waging war against Islam
Fanning endless wars in Africa
To pave way for looting
On what moral high ground
Preaching democracy to the world
DREAMS OF HOME
Dreams of a nationalistic struggle
Now hijacked by tribalistic elements
Now in the grip of opportunists
Ravenously devouring all the wealth
Dreams of the land of milk and honey
Now soaked in the blood of patriots
Dreams of peace, prosperity and stability
Under the threat of a storm of eternal poverty
Dreams of the vibrancy of tomorrow
Now like carrion devoured by vultures
Dreams of a bloody liberation struggle
The nightmares of today and tomorrow
Distant dreams of ‘mwana wevhu*’
Now abandoned in squatter camps and shacks
While prime land is reserved for picnics
Dreams of home, dreams of home
A LOOMING CATASTROPHE
The supervisor class at it
The obduracy of the masters
Acting from the same script
Oblivious of the lessons of old
Another bloody revolution looming

36. Threatening to tear apart this nation
Those that together dislodged the foe
Today at each other’s throats
TOO LITTLE TOO LATE
Like a rabid dog driven away
Buried under mounds of scorn
Friends transmogrified into foes
The hunting hound denied even a bone
Now in your demise embraced
Like vultures fighting over carrion
Their eulogies laden with superlatives
Showered with empty accolades
The propaganda mill at full throttle
Mistaking our silence for ignorance
Erecting those monuments in our minds
In due season trees bearing fruit
TORTOISE POETRY
Under the acid rain of repression
The poetry turns cryptic
Held by the throat by thought police
Ominous presence of the censor’ scissors
Tortoise poetry withdraws into its shell
The poetry is screaming silently
Marechera saw the truncheon outpacing thought
Hear them whimpering under the jack boots
The jack boots of thought police
The unmistakeable intensity evident
SLIPPED AWAY
Tired of asking for a piss pot
Tired of asking for a shit pot
Tired of their childish chiding
Then he stopped drinking water
Then food he totally abandoned
Sought refuge in eternal rest
Ever the proud man he was
Refusing to queue up for donor food
Decided to let his maker intervene
Tired of those masquerading as nurses
Tired of those so-called professionals
Then he left all the baggage behind

37. FORESTALLING GREED
Among them the visionaries
Saw waves of greed
Noble ideals in a trash can
Under mounds of choking dust
Submerged by the quick sand of corruption
Like an abandoned nest
The fate of the leadership code
Among them the visionaries
Succumbed to those machinations
Where are the visionaries today
TALK
What is the root of this self censorship
The source of this deafening silence
I hear them shouting silently
The songs, poems, stories in whispers
A nation of intellectual dwarfs
Bereft of lively debate
Talk at the street corners and in beerhalls
Talk on board commuter omnibuses
The present is here listening
Posterity is waiting to hear you
ROTTEN ROOTS
Behind the cap of knowledge
Behind the graduation gown
The body in the morgue
The trail of mourners
The undertaker’s hearse
That ululation and whistling
The foul stench of corruption
THE BENEFACTORS
The addict is tucked away
Far from public scrutiny
The broken home is not seen
Hidden under a scratch card
Hidden under a gambling ticket
The poison is candy coated

38. That is the judas kiss
Highlighting the fake philanthropy
Con artists become the benefactors
The gullible buy the sordid tale
ENOUGH
That time is nigh
Enough is enough
That meekness of the lamb
Mistaken for fear
Now the lion must roar
Hit them in the bone marrow
Riding rough shod over me
Now at the end of my tether
No longer a goat for Christmas
Never doubting my intelligence
Fighting for what is right
The stench of corruption
The sickening arse liking
Putting that behind me
That is my mission
Hear the thunder and lightning
PATHETIC CREATURES
No longer driven by need
But propelled by want
Unbridled desire for trinkets
Doing even the unthinkable
Souls put up for sale
Neatly packaged and delivered
The devil relishing the spectacle
Families torn to shreds
Amassing the obscene wealth
Reaping tonnes of misery
The maddening rush for diamonds
The creator watching his creatures
These pathetic, greedy creatures
CHASMS
Deep chasms in this nation
A nation torn to shreds
All the political bickering
In dire need of panel beating
Disfigured by dents of propaganda
Political mudslinging taking centre stage

39. while we die in droves in ‘hospitals’
Generations of semi-literates producing
Propaganda machinery in full throttle
Champion the cause of the elites
Those that fly to western countries
Flying even to eastern countries
Educating the future masters
Ensuring the health of the masters
Ignorance like amoeba multiplying
There in the heaving and wailing ghettoes
SOUND OF HYPOCRISY
The wall paper falls off
The crevices now exposed
Fleas leap out of sight
Cockroaches scurry for cover
The wall paper falls off
REMEMBERING
Back then in the ghetto
Growing up on a diet of violence
Bred by shortages of everything
Those paltry pay packets
Bickering fathers and mothers
Catching those birds for relish
The water boiling at home
Mothers ready to cook sadza
Fish not biting at the stream
Another meal confined to a dream
You take this for a joke
Facing the blinding sun daily
Going to school and work
Now we call them western suburbs
Those were the townships
Rummaging at rubbish dumps
Cat and mouse games with guards
Reading anti-communist comics
Do you remember Captain Devil
The propaganda machinery at work
Spreading myths about jackpots
Lying deep in the quicksand
Rummaging at rubbish dumps
Cultivating the literacy and numeracy
Today you take this for a joke

40. Yearning always for better days
Yearning still for better days
The racist system kept us in the muck
Revolting against this political patronage
Hoping still for a better tomorrow
GROOMING IN PROGRESS
Standing there mouths agape
Watching grooming in progress
Thought it was a lie then
Reality giving me a back hander
Clapping our chapped hands
Ululating on empty bellies
Whistling oblivious of the implications
See the grooming in progress
Getting rid of stage fright
Emotionally charged crowd in a stadium
Winners walk away with medals
The winner stays in the subconscious
CLEANING THE TOILET
The acrid smell
Those hairy maggots
There on the stale shit
In the rivulets of urine
Defunct flushing unit
In dire need of cleaning
Then I must clean the toilet
Typhoid , dysentery, cholera
Decimating the future
Get the flushing unit working
This toilet I must clean
The moment demands decision
Not the time to duck and dive
HIGH TABLES
Keep your tables high
Where no crumbs fall
Where Lazarus is banned
Where the gruesome murders
Are washed down with whisky
Where the hungry and thirsty
Salivate and never get a morsel

41. Keep your high tables
Where the concubines laugh
Laugh at humourless tales
Tales of your imagined heroic deeds
Empty stories spun by spin doctors
Keep your high tables
Supported by clay legs of lies
RIVAL SUITORS
Cut from the same cloth
One at the pulpit
Another at the podium
Entangled in a bloody feud
The rival suitors at it
THE END
Waiting with bated breath
The end of an era in sight
Under the cloak of secrecy
History judging the liars
Goebbels still remembered
Propping that anti semitic dictator
Vibrations of the end
Secret celebrations in hearts and minds
Others gripped by that fear
That fear of their dark deeds
Their commands fall on deaf ears
The people march on triumphantly
OVERSTAYING GUEST
In the cosy arms of euphoria
They fill stadia beyond measure
Ululating and whistling fervently
Minds brimming with hope
Hope for a better tomorrow
Then they have to be cajoled
Herded like a flock of sheep
Fear instilled in the minds
To prop the waning popularity
The bitter fruits of overstaying
A guest overstaying the welcome
ROBES OF INIQUITY

42. Emerging from those institutions
Wearing robes of iniquity
Bamboozling ordinary folk
Gladly espousing alienation
Wielding worthless pieces of paper
Emerging more schooled than educated
Very far removed from reality
Trashing indigenous knowledge systems
That is where we are now