Tendai Mwanaka- Two Poems

WE WAIT AND LINGER, a little

 

When we were little, stars

The sun, the moon and darkness

Stayed longer as they

Cradled us, as we played

 

As we grew older

The sun became hotter

Hot we were, in failure

Anxieties and disappointments

 

And the moon, frail

Faint, it was a grown up

Hiding in the dark skies

Inside houses that were our jails

 

Now, as we lie isolated

In darkness, immeasurable

Its soft tide pulling us in

We wait and linger, a little

 

 

 

SAD MANHOOD

 

for Edie… I know how you feel

 

I am not going to give it up

Not for anything

Not anything worthwhile

 

I have come a long way

Some say, half the way

Half the way to sad manhood

 

For the first twenty years

I was a seed in the soil

Waiting for the rains to spring up

 

From twenty onwards

I was a sapling stem

Feeding, glowing in greens

 

Now forty, onwards

I will learn from lives,

Loves I have crashed

 

To reach here, where

I am just coming to

Half the way to sad manhood.

 

 

 

Bio-

Voices from exile, a collection of poetry on Zimbabwe’s political situation and exile in South Africa was published by Lapwing publications, Northern Ireland in 2010. KEYS IN THE RIVER: Notes from a Modern Chimurenga, a novel of interlinked stories that deals with life in modern Zimbabwe was published by Savant books and publications, USA in 2012. Revolution, Logbook written by a drifter, and Voices from exile were both short listed by the Erbecce press poetry prize in 2012, 2011, and 2009 respectively, nominated for the Pushcart twice, 2008, 2010, commended for the Dalro prize 2008, nominated and attended Caine African writing workshop 2012. Published over 200 pieces of short stories, essays, memoirs, poems and visual art in over 100 magazines, journals, and anthologies in the following countries,  the USA, UK, Canada, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia, India, Kenya, Uganda, Ghana, Romania, Mexico, Cameroon, Italy, France, Spain, Cyprus, Australia and New Zealand.