Tshirendo

Tshirendo itshi asi tshirendo
Ndi bomepome ndi bonyongo
Ndi dzi pfudzungule
Ndi huwahuwa

Tshirendo itshi ndi lutsinga
Lu elaho na mulambo Mutshundudi
Ndi mahovhohovho a Phiphidi
Ndi thombo dza tshiwa misevhe

Tshirendo itshi asi tshirendo
Ndi tshihwilili tsha vho-Hangwani
Ndi mavhevhe a vha shambili
Ndi ngosha dza zwilombe

Tshirendo itshi ndi mapfuvhi
Ane u tswuka anga mulilo
Ndi khavhu dza mafhafhado
Ndi u ngwaluwa ha tsimbi i lilaho

Tshirendo itshi asi tshirendo
Ndi mufhululu
I lilela vho-Makhado
I lilela vho-Mphephu Ramabulana

Tshirendo itshi ndi nduvho
Ngulumbi ha Makwarela Vemba la nwenda Makhuge
Tshivhasa Midiya vhathu wawe wa sala
Miluwani ha vho Ratshigugu

Tshirendo itshi asi tshirendo
Ngazwo tsho dala u silinga na u nengisa
Mudzio watsho we ndi bva vhubvo
Vha u pfa vha si tshi pfesese

Tshirendo itshi ndi mbodza ino kho di do bikwa
A tshi gumi tshi ela sa Lubvuvhu
Tsha khuya vhuhwini ha ngelelekanyo
tsha nwala kha mitaladzi isa fheli

Hetshi tshi rendo asi tshirendo
Ndi sudzi le la ponyoka
Ali na muthivhi
Tshalo ndi u pfudela

A vha tshi pfi
Ngauri atshiathu rendwa
A vha tshi vhoni
Ngauri atshi athu nwalwa

Tsho vha nengisa tsho vha kwatisa
Vha funa tshi  tshi pfuvha sa mufuvha
Mara atshi pfuvhi, a tshipfi mazha!
Ngauri Tshirendo itshi atshi ho
A tshi a thu nwala
A tshi athu rendwa
A tshi a thu pfiwa
Atshi athu vhonwa
A tshi ho
Tshi thohoni yavho

will you?

Will you love me?
Even on the day i fail
When all that remains is but a shadow
Will you call my name?
When i am hidden far away
Where i cant hear no more
Will you whisper my name?
and call me all sweet things?
like you did yesterdays
Will you let me go?
holding on to a memory of you?
of when we sat in silence
consumed in each others' presence
I am on my way
I am human
Will you love me still?
Even when i am gone?

Alex

You are a testimony
Written on the blood of those who fell
On the blood of Sobukwe, Biko, Hani
And those who fell at Sharpeville and Langa

Your sewerage infested streets bear testimony
Of the night we were sold out at the CODESA
Our misery traded for a Houghton estate

Sobukwe fell in vain
Biko died for nothing
Hani's death was decoy

If your shacks still stand
Cramed in the juskei valley
Then 1994 is a myth

A thick wool over your eyes 

Don't call me home

Dont call me home

i am a shadow
i have seen the dawn and sat through the dusk
But yet to see my budding self blossom
to become of good omen to africa
to become a servant of mother continent

Dont call me home
I am yet to sing my song

I don't  want to be a god before I live

Let me live until I find love

Wrapt in vowels and syllables 
Of words spoken to silently 

With a sweet mellow touch

Don't call me home 

I am still small

Who will I be in front of Sobukwe

What will I tell Biko

How will I look at Sankara

How will I tell Nkrumah

That Africa was still not united 

Still fragmented by the erstwhile plunderers

Don't call me home 

You are till within me 

A vicar of hope and life 

Let me live until I am free 

Until the midnight and the noon 

Both stare at me with cheers

Not until I have walked my mile 

Until both the way back 

And the pearly gates are the same

Let me live until there is no live to live 

But a journey home   

Nokuthula - Hobo

Dont pass her She is not a shadow

She came, like many armed with dreams

But now her pale shadow lingers 

where her dreams once stood bold

She was not born in these streets

Broken, shattered she couldn't find comfort

until the streets welcomed her

into the gradual carrion

and now she is history

Nokuthula is a shadow

she is sunk deep in despair

and neither the liquor on her side

nor the stares will free her soul

and unchain her proud heart

She loved dearly, she loved herself last

He wanted a touch unconditional 

she forgot her classes

Now she cant see she is lost

her tummy is growing bigger

He couldn't care he kicked her out

Out out of nowhere to the emptiness of slums

Her tummy followed

Like floods after ghastly winds

her blood washed it away

The pain is too much for her fragile heart

her broken soul is stuck in a fix 

Nobody knows a doctor so she is higher

And everyday its a fix she cant pay the bills

Her landlord is out for her its too late

She stands in the street

Full of souls but she cant find a friend

Its dark there is no hope no home

She is a shadow so she leans on the wall

Its dry affection is a comfort

Hunger arrested her and she cant see the bus take off

Its time for class but all she is, is darkness

the picture is clearer but all she see is doom

The streets never misled her its been brutal

She is at hoem its a fix 

Don't call her home

She is her home

her tears are dry

Black Rainbow

I see darkness
houses standing empty, abandoned
Cars ditched by the roadside
vast farms ready for harvest
but harvesters are no where to be found

Its not the end
But the beginning

For a hungry man riots
his hunger can no longer stand

For a homeless man refuses
another night under the bridge

For a farm worker refuses
to work tirelessly yet sleep hungry

For the praise singer is silent
he is calling out spades

Land thieves are thieves
Murderers are murders
Rapists are rapists
Where do they fit in the rainbow?

But the sky is dry
No rain
The rain is wrapt in darkness
There is no sign of spring
The rainbow is black.

The Journey

Mystery, a way into an unknown wilderness
A return to a seemingly never ending bliss
No one knows when it started.

Wake up to beauty

Wake me up when September ends
long after the winds have blow my tears away
and august is but a distant memory
Don't let me sleep no longer
When the cold June is no more
I want to wake up to beauty
to roses and sweet spring joys
when the sky above
is adorned with majestic splendor.

untitled

Where are my lines?
why did i not stick to what i know?
i have been a heart full of words
All i need is a pen to tear apart my reality
and break a new dawn for my poor soul
a life stuck in bliss
far away from the boxes and circles
that life never cease to force me into
i am liquid, the air that flows
stuck in timelessness
without the end and the beginning
where is my last verse?
couldn't I find a paper?
i chocked on my rhymes
there is nothing to express silence
its all that's left in me
I cannot set the mountains red
lit with rhymes of fire
i have burned in my aspirations
the hope to find expression
in things of this world
Where is my heart?
All i see is words broken
Can i find a word to escape into?
Or rhymes are forever broken?
Why am i pieces as if words can be broken?
i have no affection
until i find a paper to pour my soul into
and die empty.

Brown Bottle

His eyes sunk in their sockets
less drunk like other days
but his spirit is low
fading with his dim eyes

'Son, give me the brown bottle'
He reaches out like a beggar
all he wants is his last sip
out of a life lived in agony

It was never a life
after all the money is made
and  many friends made
all he yearns for is another sip

To part ways in peace with his brown bottle
as fractures of his life remain pieces
that he leaves in this earth
for some to talk about

They will talk
long after the end
what will remain will be murmuring
of a life that was purely mirage

We saw it but not really
We heard about it but we heard nothing
for it was neither this nor that
it wasn't here it wasn't there

Such is life after all
What we hold dear
Sometimes fades with time
and all that remains

It is the brown bottle
that held so much joys
and so many tears
just like his black life.

Last breath before dawn

 There is breath before dawn
that calls you home to eternal solitude
you walked your way alone
faced with fearful odds
that none but you could ever imagine
for the smile was the holding center
keeping both misery and mystery on check

Life is never truly as blissful
as the silent flow of mutshundudi river
or as beautiful, as phiphidi waterfalls
with water gushing down full of hope
its a mystery, only fully discovered in silence
and your silence came before dawn

They see the anguish
and think there is more to be done
but the chapter folds and the book written
a dash of hope trampled to the soil
where meaning begins
in the depth of solitude
where no one can reach
unless its forever

But once for every man
a dawn comes that he will not see through
yours came like a thief at night
and it comes for all for all of us
to usher us into the true reality
a life in a box, slowly decomposing
until there is no memory
of the days spent in blissful delusion

But for you it came like a thief at night
and left us still hopeful
that the sting was an illusion
that maybe with the waning dawn
you would find your way back to us
for one more a smile
for one more a joke
for one more a secret
for one more a life shared in its fullness

But for you it came like a thief
and stole your last breath
before dawn

R.I.P Tovhowani Nevondo (died 17 April 2015)... a neighbor and a friend

Full moon

You are not a messenger of light

who, adorned with hope, light bright the skies above

You are a sun, borne out of darkness

a distant memory of life where darkness abide

to hide a murderous people

as they plunge upon their own

like a thief that comes in the night

Full moon, you hide their ashes 

slowly cooling off into darkness

that wrapt them since the last flame died

and the last muscle collapse into an ash

Full moon, you hide Kwazulu Natal

and its gory heart

a word spoken, a river of blood runs

over flowing to the nation

flaming after other nations

like a hungry fire in an odd morning

Consuming whatever it touches

who will wipe the tears from our brothers

who will comfort their wives and daughters

who will warm their sons' heart

when the dagger is held by our hand

Will the full moon go away

and expose a hearts draped with hatred

or will it stay forever

forever tucked in our black hearts

The last rites

The struggle continues
To hold on to your last breath
And journey back to the beginning
When you were full of slogans
And the revolution running in you
But the slogans grow faint
And at the last breath
No one remembers
How you towered above us
Always ready to lay your life
But far away from the machine guns
From the slogans and revolution
It is a dark moment
The hated priest searches deep within you
To see if there is light in your darkness
To see if it's time for your last rites
And he sees nothing
We are still landless

'Izwe Lethu' he solemnly prays

In memoriam Maxwel Nemadzivhanani
RIP 2015/04/01. Izwe Lethu

Guerilla

She saw him

clad in a long black trench coat

a rugged newspaper slotted under his arm

with a beard almost sweeping the red soil

He walked silently like the rumbling of fallen leaves

His eyes tossing side by side like mounted AKs

as if aware of the mulch of danger that covered his face

She saw him

detached from the village he crossed

with a gaze that estranged her

as if she had always been a shadow

He walked like a battalion

Ready to charge, to vanquish the enemy

engulfed in a deep pool of disciplinary silence

She saw him

disappear like a ghost

Waging a war in her head

setting her against her own eyes

Was he the calm breeze that followed?

or the stone that rattled against the calm breeze?

Was he the cabbage that suddenly grew rich in colour?

or was he the fiery anger that flew from her eyes?

Was she the enemy now?

was this Parks* where he was studying?

who was he?

did she see him?

*its suspected that Parks refers to Parktown Boys High School

1985 (The Baptism)

They won't tell you about it

It was draped  in a blissfully festive

Dusty villages where not without a tale

And music could be heard all corners

Drunkards drunk and everyone tipsy

The old guitarist sat in the corner

Strumming the strings as ladies sang

Though he sang the loudest

But the merry men danced all day

While children clogged the carless

We had no sinners in the tent

Until that young man arrived

He spoke with a tongue so soft

Made many speak in tongues

in chaos never seen before

They did not drink petrol

Nor munch on the rich green grasses

But they were fed the body of God

And His blood they drank

shaken to a new birth

The queued like a flock down the valley

One by one to that young man draped in white

With one gasp he shoved them in

and out came a new creature

until the whole village could see

They saw sin as it came

to be the order of the day

in the midst of newness