Full Circle

Love is not for kids, they said
Grow up, you might live to tell
It is smokes and mirrors
You see nothing
When your eyes are wide open

So I closed my eyes
Only to watch parting hearts
Leave trails of a brokenness
The story will one day be told
Of the never ending pain

I opened my eyes
To embark on the mute pursuit for happiness
For something that cannot be touched
For something that cannot perish
For something that cannot disappear

It was not found in the valleys
It was not found in the mountains
It was not found  in sacred places
It was not found
In the hallow classrooms of miseducation
It was not found here

At last
Tired of being on the old road
The endless mute pursuit for happiness
Broken by the unwavering anguish
Amassed in the seemingly never ending pursuit
Only to emerge here

Standing at the edge of time
Finally going blind to reality
Unseeing the world and its gory
Only to see what has always been here
Something that cannot perish
Soiled by innocence
A full circle
It never started, it never ended

For Witty

They don't hear the waters wailing
The things you feel demand depth
That you drown in desperation
Telltale signs are there
Yet no one looks
They see the madness
And not the cry for help
For tears dries at dawn
But a sinking heart doesn't stop
Until you take the plunge
And sink in your despair

- For Witty

Moon Chaser

Moonchaser,
hold on to your dreams
the night is still young
though darkness is in abundance
hold on to tomorrow

Moonchaser,
The night is not the end
There is a gold that shines
When all this is over

Chase the moon,
Run after for its light
It will lead you home
At the break of dawn

Don’t touch me

Don’t touch me I am fragile 

I shutter at the tenderness of your touch 

I must have loved you to the moon

So much that I seek nothing 

From the endless mute pursuit 

Love me with your bulging eyes

Not with your ugly hands 

Nor your  pudgy self 

Love me from a distance

Though I am in your shadow 

For I break 

At the tenderness 

Of your 

Touch 

Long live the Sun

Robert, I have lived all my life
looking up to you
Wondering if I will live to the day
When me and my boys cease to be landless

Robert, you are gone
Same as did Sobukwe
Same as did Biko
Same as did Lebalo

Gabriel, will you still look after us?
Inspire us to go for our own
Until the child of a peasant is the landlord
And the landless are redeemed

Gabriel, will you be the courage
That burns in our heart
At the face of endless injustice
Visited upon mother Africa

Long live the Sun
That rose from the east

The Visitor

I am the visitor
I come to laugh
And make nothing out of something

Don't mind me
A muse stuck in his own thoughts
I am the visitor

I have been to the moon
Found my way back to hell
In any case I am the visitor

I know no God
I know no heaven
I know no love

If I kill its love
If I love its murder
Don't mind me

I am the visitor
I come unprepared
Be prepared for anything

Write a poem

Write a poem, they said
It will lift your soul
From the depth of despair
Your hell is harrowing
Only your soul can save you
Pour it out in verses, they said
You will be free
From the endless mute pursuit
For this and that
Things that cannot be touched

Write a poem, they said
And you will not miss the setting sun
That has dazzled your childhood

Write a poem, they said
And you will not miss
the gushing waters of Phiphidi Waterfall

Write a poem, they said
And you will not miss
Your whistling old man walking home

Write a poem, they said
For the day you cannot write no more

Poems are written, but the pursuit continues

(for Murena 'Lord' Mawela)

Valerie

Valerie

If I change, do not marvel

I never owned everything I had

I am yet to earn a heart

Valerie

If you see me stumble

Do not be dismayed

I am in a journey

My stumbles are an iota

In this long mute pursuit

A journey to wards a happy place

Valerie

When all you have is my back

Know I am walking back home

I am free

Bugersfort

Burgersfort, you know you are a liar
Dawn adorned with misty hope
for a blissful tomorrow

Bugersfort, you let dreamers dream
of wealth and a never-ending romance
but you know you are a killer

Bugersfort, you kill the budding hope
of the living
and the aspirations of the late

Bugersfort, you murdered my grandfather's hope
You killed him again
To hell with you

Don't love me like a rose

She Said:
           You don't love me like a rose
           You don't warm my petals with your touch
           And blaze my thorns with your piercing gaze

          Why won't you love me?
           Like a sweet wild rose?
           Thorned and all, but still precious

           It's a love that won't hurt
           Like a rose rooted in thorns
           Won't harm but clothe in a sweet aroma

           Why, why, why?
           Why won't you love me like a rose?
           Why won't you be gentle with my thorns?
           Even when they prick?

I Said:
          I know why a caged bird sings
          Its melancholy is not without merit
          It longs for the day it can spread its wings
          And feel the air rush through seamlessly
          What then of a breath of fresh air?
          Of the sun that rises?
         Will she not cry for it?
         For the steel bars are not a brass band
         They don't sing along to her melody
         She is a rose plucked out of her stem
         Her melody is written in pain
         She says don't love me like a rose
         Live me in the wild
         Let me fly
         Let me live

The Burial

Have I come to bury you?
I hate to see words wrestle their way
Instead, rush through your veins to that head
A head, that is but a shadow
Only to evaporate
utter confusion

You, You said 'Be strong'
And I soldiered on
But in this hour
It is sad to see you whither
With the withering days

It's a bleak night
I hope I wake up soon
To a blissful day
And not remember this nightmare

I hope to see you again
Out of that dark cold place
A place you have made a home

Walk, soldier on
That's what you said

And it's all that is left

.

Broken

You say you are broken
And i wonder
What breaks a diamond?

What does that even mean
When all i see is perfection

What breaks
A smile that has set days alight
With the wildest of bliss

Is it when it is engulfed in darkness?
Wrapt in despair?
Or is it when it finds a home in anxiety?

Don't say you a broken
Where there is no pieces

You are the smile
You are the joy
What is left?
When that too is broken

Coming Home Soon

Stars above tell a tale
They say you will be coming home soon
But its been night after night
And I am walking alone
In this pitch dark night

The roads we travelled
They tell a tale
They say you will be coming home soon
But its been years and I am still looking out
Wondering if you still remember the way home
To a place, we have been

The places we visited
They are talking to me each day
They say you will be coming home soon
I know soon you will be here
One night I will open the door of this heart
And it will be you walking in
To a friendship that couldn't be eroded by time
To a friendship that we called home

Even the lines of this verse are talking to me
They say you will be coming home soon
I am waiting

The Mute Pursuit

The mute pursuit
Its a never ending jorney
Carved out of endless nights
Its end is unknown
Though it aspires
For a never ending bliss
But it persists
Never ending
As if it is the end
But the wise know
It is the means
To a blissfule end

Tsengela Tsiwana

Lutendo ndi tsengela tsiwana
Ndi tshitangu musi wa swiswi
Musi ndila itshi ndi bva vhubvo
Vhutshilo ha swifhala sa dungunudzi
Na mutali a pepeleka
Mupfumi a shaya
Hone a tendaho kha ene mune
Una ifa lisa sini
Na duvha line a thafha

Another world?

You wonder
If i am still the same
Or am i still running
In the mute pursuit for happiness
This never ending burden
To find what pleases the heart
You know i am lost
Look where i have been
These are my footprints
I hope there is another life
Is there another world
Another heart

Eternity

You said to pray
Even as the road gets thorny
But its dark now
Things fall apart
The world is not here
And when you are with me
You know you are alone
But even in this dark night
I know there is no god for the weak
Perhaps one morning i wake up
To watch the sun rise to a blissful day
A sad day indeed for soon it will be meet
That the same shall set with the rising demons
Where do i kneel when there is no peace
Does god know where you have been

I wish to see the sun rise
I wish to see the rose blossom
Hopefully they shine like the stars
That set the road lit for you
In the highs and lows of Pretoria

I wish to walk again free
I wish to wonder purposelessly
Hopefully, i ended up in a world
That is awashed with rhymes and rythm

I am a dreamer
Locked in this prison called night
I refuse to pray for a miracle for morning
That ushers a day that will wither

I am looking for eternity
In the same place, i last saw it.

Linda

Linda are you ok?
Why is your voice muted?
Is that tears i hear flowing in your voice

Linda are you ok?
Can you fit a smile?
On a torn face?

Can you chuckle?
With swollen eyes?
A cracked skull

Why are you talking to me?
Have you been to the doctor?
Linda don't cry
Tomorrow is a better day
Whenever it comes

Linda are you ok?
Run?
Dont run Linda
What if you run and never stop?

Linda don't hang up?
Talk to me so long
Who is back?
Where are the kids Linda?

Are you ok?
Linda?
Linda, are you ok?

I wrote a poem

I wrote a poem
For the day when I cannot write no more
When the night silence falls
For the day the ink dries
When words like rivers vanish
And ears that listened
CANNOT BE SEEN

Nightmare

Don't sleep, its a trap
The night is pregnant with untold nightmares
They don't tell you
They hope you sleep through the dark
And wake up transformed a lasting beauty
But the night is wicked
It haunts, it kills
Both the body and the vision it carried
Don't be a fool and sleep
Or you wake up in a bed full of anguish
A nightmare that refuses to vanish with the dawn
Don't sleep; not in summer
Don't sleep; not in winter
Don't sleep; next to a dog
Don't sleep; with a princes
It is a trap and your night dries up

From what we heard

From what we heard
He was a great man
Full of a heart
That left many in awe

From what we heard
He was a loving man
Full of greatness
That with awe captured many

From what we heard
Nothing untoward could be said
Not even a sad
Could provoke an animal with

From what we heard
He was nothing but a spirit
A benevolent soul
And that's why we are here

I wonder what is said in silence
When no one is listening
Does silence sing him a praise
Or does it sing for his fur

I know why the dog died

I know why the dog died
Waiting at the table of a Queen

He waited patiently
Never seeing bones falling

I know why the dog died
Waiting at the table of a Queen

He waited for diamonds

For glitters of gold

I know why the dog died
Waiting at the table of a Queen

He waited for the fattest stake

Cuisine from worlds afar

I know why the dog died
Waiting at the table of a Queen

He never knew that

Only bones fell from the table

He died waiting

At the table of the queen

Thinking each day that goes by

Was a day closer to a better day 

When his stake would be served

But  I know why the dog died

Waiting at the table of a Queen

He thought like a King

Not seeing the King 

That sat opposite the Queen

The day the guitar stopped

Broken bones
Battered skin
Bruised faces
Economic injustice
But the guitar kept us going

Boiling Blood
Broken society
Buried Families
Endless suffering
But the guitar kept us together

Hey Days
Healing a broken dream
Heading to something worse
Emerson is here
But the guitar kept hope alive

But the guitar stopped
Strings tied around our hearts
Finally played the last note
And withered

Rest in Peace - Oliver Mutukudzi

Missed

I am sorry that you missed me
I have been to the world
And many days, it was you I thought i found
In the many eyes of strangers encountered

I was in the east
I walked out beaten and broken
I also made it to the west
I wrote poems laced in agony

I am sorry that
Perhaps each dusk you stood
And watched in despair for a returning shadow
That never became a reality

I am sorry that you looked for a friend
And the friend was nowhere to be found
You looked for comfort
In the dessert like arid friendship

I am sorry you missed me
I am sorry you missed me
I did not miss you
you did not miss me

The End

When it ends
Is it the end?
Does it have to be ugly?

When it ends
Is it over?
Does it have to be that way?

When it ends
Is there a bad guy?
Does it only hurt one side?

When it ends
Do you sleep at night?
Or do you ask why it ends?

The Phenomena

Where do we start?
Every second is full of questions
Even if we break it to pieces
Questions do not end
Like the endless Nile
They find ways into our hearts
Everyone everywhere is full of questions

Where do we go?
When moments full of questions
Breed more questions
And not their answers
Like a river
Do we cry endless tears
And choke as we gasp

Where do we end?
Are questions killers?
Do we sleep at night?
When all the questions have been asked
Like the melody of anguish
Can its beauty be tainted?
By the endless emotions provoked

Where do we go after the end?
We are not the first
We are not the only ones
Who carry these questions
Like life, Its an ugly end
Life is phenomena full of questions
Answered by some whose questions ring hallow

Your Migrant Child is Home

Your migrant child is home
The city has been kind
The neon lights that each night set lit
The zebra strips that criss cross the city
Also shone on him

He is  a man now
No longer a baby that longs for home
For a warm embrace of the village
He has grown a skin
That makes it hard to feel warmth

He is home
To see through the merry days
Though the merry days are long gone
And children play no more in the street
The streets are silent

Your migrant child is home
He is here
Though he has laboured through the toiling days
He is home
Empty handed

unknown

is a poem for a season?
or does it wither without a reason?

Does the pen crawl in vain?
When stuck deep in pain?

 (incomplete)

Vista

How did we get here?

To a hospital without a doctor

Miseries in abundance 

Ailments never ceasing 

They end us one by one

Do we smile from within?

Or is it walls that keep us composed?

(incomplete)