Where’s the Love?

Often, when my eyes survey the world

They see joy lost and everywhere peace is gone;
And to earth falls flat pleas as dreams lay torn

From the lips of tears and misery I hear anguish

In panic my blood runs cold at things that unfold

When I shake hands with hurts and pain and melancholy.

It’s here I asked myself, where is the promised love?

With hope bereft and despair disguised as gentle arms

I went to the church and feathers of hope fell off me

I went to the village grounds and met open betrayals

On each street corner are greed, paybacks and spite

And all that can break your back left me dismayed.

I choked on the smiles on lips and the love on fingertips

And I asked myself, where is the love we talked about?

I cannot be at peace when people are not free.

And all that come to sooth the soul is angst
I ask myself is this what the revolution was about?

I see people who cannot marry the love of their lives.
I see countries and families torn apart by war and strife.
I met the nakedness of freedom, racism and inequality,

With a wounded heart that silently weeps

I do not think this is how it's supposed to be.

Like a seed that blows in the gentle breeze,
I want to spread love and put bigotry down on one knee.
Every human and every soul deserves happiness.
They shouldn't be harmed; we must lose bitterness.
But why have we lost love in our world?

Deep within my heart, there is a scorching flame
That demands I help my fellow man and woman
They scream at me to give them my hand.

My one wish is to deliver upon the world a soothing rain.
To cast away the reign of intolerance and fear,
To deliver humanity from tyranny's pain and torture

That a lifeless soul or a faceless one losses not the self

The Divorce

Fudzikomele, who will believe this?

I walked through the front door,

And you said, “Get Out of my Face!”

You said, “Else, you will find yourself finished.”

Today, I walked through the front door again,

And you said: “Look at the time! Look at the time!”

Thank you; I stepped out through the front door again

I didn’t see a thousand flaming trees on the road.
Instead, hills fell over each other, royally, to greet me.

By daily dying, I’ve learned to be.

I hope my silences are accurate and true

Maybe, it’s true, in the dark eyes begin to see better.

Ballard of the Sand

Fudzikomele my dear,

The mother we hired to birth you
Because she does not love me, leads you

Into deep waters, to the deep end

Where the water is darker.

Her open, encouraging arms
That never get nearer you are merciless.

You will dream of this water always
Where nothing comes nearer to your comfort,
Wasting your valuable breath now and then
You will scream choking , but no.

Unknowingly, she is drowning
In a forever thin air of the fog on her nose

Down at the deep end and she is doing nothing,

Really, she never did anything harder.
And you want me beside her. Maybe, in imagination.
Where the water is darker everyday unending.

Think positively and the sound will be music

And your moves will become a dance for you.

I wish I can turn this wry smile into laughter

And our long drought into a celebration of joy

But, you are learning how in this helpless water
It is with our skill we live else it will kills us.

Deep in the Heat

It’s a harsh light,
This summer sun, baking the earth.

But why is autumn
Coming with a soft light, wit

h long shadows?

Sad to say, winter lights are cold

And blue, and we shiver with our teeth 

clapping like cymb

It’s only in spring-time
That we see a new light 

that’s bright with daffodils.

Do you also have the light 

of understanding
in your eyes? 

I Love the Rain

Whenever it rains, I feel so free
Like a bird, that I want to kiss the rain.

I see the rain washing away our quandaries
Quenching our sun baked soul.

While others rush for cover under eaves
I let the rain beat upon my head like a song

Last night the rain played a sleep song on our roof
It made me love the rain more.

I wish it will rain every Friday

To make pools on the sidewalks and we all sleep.

Once We Were One

For once 

we were nothing, 

yet my people, we were one.

Somewhere in the forgotten world 

we both climbed each other,
cleaved and cleaved to one another.

We both heard the years hurtling past,
whirring like gears in a hulk factory.

We saw kin and kith breathing,
we gathered our thoughts like defetsui leaves

For the diviner and if some death was coming this way

it will go beyond our ears.

Even before we took Kete to Datsutagba 

there were no doubts swarming 

like reconnaissance planes over forests of sleep,

we were one.

We only heard words murmured in love.

What a grand time we were. 

Is it a grand time now?

What a grand time………………….

Where are we now?..

Where are we?

I Love Tennis

I love women's tennis

and God knows I do
but it’s more complicated 
to watch

in every shot

three balls bounce and bounce

and bounce and you get confused
about which ball to see

and my mine 

and Jesus wept

Jacob’s Ladder

Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman,

Sojourner Truth, John Brown, 

Ogalala, Adoeette, Nkrumah

Turner, Biko, Lumumba, Sirowiwa

Mandela, Martin Luther King and all

they saw the ladder

burning in their dreams 

and they climbed it

yet sleep today pressed us like a stone

in the dust
when we should have risen like a flames

to join their choir,

but we were too sick of running

and we closed our eyes to the Seraphim

ascending and descending

too conscious of the impossible distances
between our steps 

and we missed it

to mount the crystal ladder

and slowly we disappeared

one by one into the dark

beneath the stars to sleep forever 

and stone upon stone will thump
our cold shivering bodies into dust

wish we could have grown greater dreams

than desires