National Healing by Abel Phiri

Image - britannica.com

Lest 's exhume a man from the cemetery
a well built grave 
 awarded a  proper burial,
who earned one 
an unsung hero buried in a mass grave
a feckless drunkard in an improvised grave
drainage, or a makeshift grave at the backyard garden.

lets exhume a man from the grave
ask him how it is in the land of the dead
are there springs or winters ?
are there Shona ?
do they clap their hands preliminary to receiving things?
do they remember anything?
how they were  burnt to death?
or maybe they are white
they talk to in laws hands in pockets,
what components make a man when shed there is no man?
is it the flesh, mind or the soul ?

Let's exhume self from vile conspiracy
do we have flesh , medium for sharing pain
do we think of others ?
lets exhume self from vengeance
ask being how we live if soulless
if as atrocious as death
let's exhume ourselves from the grave
and ask how   we live if we are dead