The Worker's Flag

The Worker’s Flag

Still they trudge
Homeward bound
Alongside the highway
With the eye of the red sun
Peeping at them from the western sky
As it prepares its blue bed
For its children the merry stars
To come back home
And rest their silver sparks

Home is a long way
If the stomach is empty
After a long day of toil
Behind monsters of machines
In the echoing factory
That threaten to maim limbs
As they produce
What the machine operator
Will never afford to purchase

Still they trudge
Homeward bound
It is a long way home
If steep slopes separate it from work
That must be negotiated
As they rise and fall
Blow and billow
And the weary body is burdened
By thoughts of debts
And hunger and anger
As to the west
The twilight sun sets
Its colours the country’s flag

The Destiny Of The Unborn

Nothing so depressing
As coming back into the country
From the abundance of the shops
In nearby Francistown
Or Messina
To see the shelves in our supermarkets
As empty as the thoughts
Of the shef’s when they can see
The heavy burden
They have dumped dumped
On the shoulders of the yet unborn

1987

I ask myself
Are we back in 1987
When Nkomo signed
That short lived Unity Accord?

Sighs of relief
Also sealed it then
As they have also now done
The power sharing deal

Sighs of relief
That later witnessed
The backward slide
That has precipitated us
Into the now of anger and disenchantment
Of the noble dream
Of the nation’s independence
From the yokes of oppression

1987

I ask myself
Are we back in 1987
When Nkomo signed
That short lived Unity Accord?

Sighs of relief
Also sealed it then
As they have also now done
The power sharing deal

Sighs of relief
That later witnessed
The backward slide
That has precipitated us
Into the now of anger and disenchantment
Of the noble dream
Of the nation’s independence
From the yokes of oppression

THE DAY THE MIRROR TALKED

Hey teacher
Please listen to this picture-

Where are you hiding these days
Please tell your former student
For, I remember, sir photosynthesis,
The hiding you used to give me

Eeish

Knuckles
Tips of fingers
A slap
Switch on buttocks

And I would dance
And dance and dance

And curse your mother
And father
Who gave birth
To such a callous person

Big red bhabhalazi eyes

But yet so brave

As to punish
Another man’s child-

But now I realize
It was only a gun
Wearing a condom

For

Which change
Were you trying to change

Higher than the change
That makes you skulk at corners
And queue at the money lenders
On SSB day
Or the useless bank
The whole day
For

You have nothing on your payslip
Please envy the mu Postori
Who calculate trillions on their fingers
Who have opened banks in their houses
-education is important
-education is important

Blast!

Tell me dear teacher
Are you waiting for Jehovah
To bring about the change
That makes your heart nearly seize
And your thoughts go astray
When you envision
In your dreams
Whilst hoping
into the back of a cheap truck
Because you cannot afford the commuter Kombi
The house you thought you would build
The car you thought you would buy
The holiday
You thought you would take
In Victoria Falls
The Sychelles
When you were still fresh from college

Spirit of this class
Through rain or glass
I fling chalk dust into the mirror
And bid words hither
To create themselves on the reflection
And walk on their minute spirals
Back to the school assembly point