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.

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.

She and Me

The greatest news for a long time

Was when I heard she “IS DEAD!”

She was the graveyard of my youth

The leprosy you can’t endure

Right now, I am dozing between belief and disbelief

I remember how she made pain work over time with me

Night and day, my head was lost in the fog

My tears fall like rain before I could cry

She has a heart forged of iron

And her love was full of acid, sulfuric and nitric

I never knew this from the onset

Till she made me eat the bread of sorrow

Tonight, I pray God to grant me a belated solace

And I don’t care to skip work today.

Unreturning

I’ve been acquainted with the night before,

But I walked out of its rain to the furthest end

I know why I did not call back or say goodbye

The music I heard with you was not my music,
The bread I broke with you was not my kind of bread;
Now that I’m no more the luminary clock on the wall
All that was once so beautiful is dead in the mind.

It is Agbozume-laga who said, he needs no interrupted cries

What dropped his eye this dawn he is unwilling to explain,

But anyone who comes to the twilight knows leaves whisper.

Once your hands touched this table, this plate and this silver,
And I have seen your fingers hold this glass a dozen times
But these things do not remember you, the once beloved,
Your joy crushed out the day and our dead fear to return home.

Before his helpless sight, Agbozume-laga had dreams

You plunged at him, guttered him, choked him and drowned him

You placed his dreams behind the wagon and hang his writhed face

It’s not the landing on strange beach under a broken sky

But besides the salty herb, it was the lengthening biting sun
A heart that’s cold and wild, and doesn’t remember anything.

Please, be careful where you step; the grave is so wide.

It’s Over

when we met you told me lies:
you said you loved me and I was

the only one in your life and I
believed you and trusted you

you pretended you shared my sorrows

when my tears were flowing like a river

now I know it was all just a game

to make me believe you have the latest kiss

I was a fool to trust in everything you said
that you were an angel spreading your love

but now your words cut like a dagger
you wanted me to take care of your needs

it doesn’t take long to catch a thief in its own game

‘cos a dead yam-leaf falls off by itself into the dust

and we don’t burn a thief’s house; we comb it

I’m glad you found a new pawpaw-twig to swing on

this morn I learned of what you told my friends

my tears and sorrows are not part of your dreams

all you wanted was me to take care of your needs

so, our love was just an ATM machine

glad to know you obviously never cared

but that doesn't matter anymore
glad you found someone at my backyard

but it won’t take long for the world to know you

the lid you found this morn is for the bowl you hated

the elders say, there’s a reason mother hen in on the market
now I know you thought grass is greener on the other side

well, I’m just too glad you had to go and we shut the door

Don't Let Anything Change You

Today, I want to encourage you with these words: Don't let any thing that comes your way Change You or Don't Let Anyone's Vindictive Words and Vicious Actions Change You. Think About This...........Believe it or not, it's been shown that while mankind is essentially good, there is a contingent of about 20% (one-fifth) of the population who are here to wreak havoc on the other innocent 80% (four-fifths) of mankind. (Don't worry, if you're even reading this kind of inspiring thought, you're probably in the 80% or you may be in the 20% unknowingly). No matter what, don't let the vicious ways and vindictive words of the 20% blind you to the beauty, hope, kindness and caring that exist in others around you. Don't equally adopt their destructive ways of being in retaliation. Maintain the beauty of your spirit, the kindness in your heart and the friendliness in your demeanor. There is no reality save for that which we accept and buy into. My Grandma used to say, there are two ways of spreading light, to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it. Be a light unto the path of others and not like the man who because his pride is slighted vows to destroy other peoples' life. Live your life purely so that it is through your eyes, your words and ways that the world can see its kinder gentler self. Reciprocity is not a requirement for conviction, any more than a mirror makes you who you are. Maintain the reality of who you wish to be and soon your world will reflect and become you. Therein lies prosperity.

Don't Let Anything Change You

One-fifth of man will find ways to suppress the other four
that seems to be their purpose, nothing less, and nothing more
Your mission, on the other hand, is clear beyond all doubt
Despite what men may do, don't let them change what you're

 For happy men must smile, and gifted men must give
your purpose is to be the change you want the world to live
And activists and advocates must act and raise their voice
for only by example will you give the world a choice

At times you'll think it futile and you'll want to pack it in
When good men choose do nothing is all bad men need to win
For slow it seems a brick a day is how new worlds are made
But with each act of kindness is a new foundation laid

And those of us who comment on the flaws of one man's way
must watch our words for so shall we create our world's delay
The minute that you start to say "that's just the way it is,"
you've lost hope in your world, you've joined him there in his

The minute that they break you, friend, their side goes up by one
And you become the very thing you say you want undone
As Gandhi said, "an eye for eye leaves everyone quite blind."
Don't let them douse your spirit, fire, beauty, gifts or mind!