Thu | Mar 28, 2024

Poems

Published:Sunday | December 8, 2019 | 12:29 AM

Order of the day

Peace retreats to solitude, as violence shows its’ gory head.

Hopes and dreams, before they breathe, are sometimes marked as dead.

Confusion dressed in various garbs is the order of the day.

Headless subjects grip a side and watch their leaders play.

They play with wild abandon.

It’s a party everyday.

Those too weak to frolic

Simply pine away.

Fresh rain, with wisdom, will decide to wash the dirt away.

Until then, those at the helm of vagrancy seem all prepared to play.

Partying, for them, is now the order of the day!

– Erica Brown Marriott

-------

No Race

No race none of that in this place

Ye that exalteth shall be abased

Some a dem think this is a mental or physical or intellectual race

If the truth be told then you will learn

Intellectuality is good but knowledge with service to my Lord is better

Because that’s the only way the unionisation will happen

And that’s all of my father’s plan

Middle class expression with first class potency

The journey begins and education inspiration with persuasive abilities

That’s the journey I’m on right

Righteousness exalteth every man and woman

Knowledge has the keys to fulfil our destinies

Read history forefather’s prophecy and then the truth will set/build your capacity

I’m going to clear the pathways, be ready

The things you do the things you say the company you keep

will tell who and what you are

Because some of you are some falling star

But I know that those from the flock that stray

In short time they shall find their way

With principles and good practise

They shall find their way back quick quick quick

The truth have to swim on top

Just like oil in water, so sayeth me and my blessed father

My Lord taught me well, and said,

Let your heart retain my words and live,

Ye children of the Lord and then you

Shall have enough to give, remember my name is poole

Swim, swim, swim

– Dwight R. Poole

------

A copy of you

Is there a copy of you somewhere else?

Yesterday I beheld an unbelievable event.

A woman in a black dress walked in late.

The scent of your favourite perfume instantly filled the hall.

I looked at her, and I literally saw you.

I was familiar with everything about that woman.

Her presence made me want to slip away from the meeting;

I just could not stay inside the building.

You may think I am insane, but I know what I saw.

I almost died from astonishment when she came closer.

Her body was the same size as yours,

And she was wearing your preferred hairstyle.

She had your adorable face,

She had fair complexion like you,

She had your pretty nose,

She had your sweet sexy eyes,

And she spoke with a soft voice as you do.

I could not tell the difference between her and you.

She definitely bore an extreme resemblance of you.

Unfortunately she sat down beside me in the back row,

And a sudden uneasiness swept over me.

My heart was trumping fast and I started to lose focus.

I could not hear what the speaker was saying.

I kept looking at her and it sparked somaesthesia in me.

No doubt she was wondering why I looked so dazed,

It was hard to accept that you were not there.

I believed that in time I would get over the loss of your love,

And I have tried unsuccessfully to forget you.

It was the most frightening experience I have ever had.

I cannot pretend that it did not happen,

For I am certain that I was not hallucinating.

You do not have a twin sister and it was not you,

So it had to be either an apparition or a copy of you.

Who or what else could it have been?

I could not bear to sit there with her any longer.

I was getting emotionally weak as the minutes went by.

Suddenly I felt tears rolling down my face,

And that was when I got up and went outside.

I began to miss you more intensely when she appeared.

The dulcet memories of you came back to me,

And I felt you in my presence once again.

Was it a copy of you or did I actually see you?

– Marlon Pitter (Inspired by true events)

--------

For my grandmother

I see my Grandmother in every face

I see her in every smile

She’s there in every kiss and hug

That is given to a child

Every time someone dips their cracker in

Their tea-

It reminds me of my Grandmother

Or when I smell the sweet whiff

Of a hell a top, hell a bottom

It reminds me of Mama

I still remember that red church dress

That you wore to church at Christmas

And can’t believe

On Mother’s Day

Is when you chose to leave us

You were a servant of Christ

And even now as we tell your story

We know you’re wrapped in Jesus’ arms

And surrounded by his glory

I don’t know how

To stop the pain

And emptiness I feel inside

Since nkuku o sule

Which simply means

My Granny died

But I know she’s right beside me

Feeling all the pain

I feel inside

And know she’s there to comfort me

As these tears pool from my eyes

As a Christian

I must confess

To both the evil and the good

And how as we grew older

Sometimes we failed to love

Each other

As we should

So I refuse to remember you

As I would in my adulthood

And instead remember the gentle love

Of Mama of my childhood

So as I renounce

The enmity of time

And choose to remember you with

The innocence of a child

All I want to say to you in Setswana

Is ke a go rata nkuku

I love you, My Grandmother.

– Lisa Gaye Taylor