Friday, February 18, 2011

Writing with light winners

1. Jazz by Lilian Dube

Photograph by Resta Nyamwanza



I met jazz in a dream
Down by the river
Leaning against an amarula tree
Playing the pennywhistle
To the sound of my heartbeat
& the smell of the last rains
She made love to my senses
Drowned my soul
I can’t breathe, can’t let go.


2. Between A and B by Babusi Nyoni

Photograph by Resta Nyamwanza

Lines, LINES
Electricity lines
Zip-zapping over skylines
On city grid guidelines
Load-shedding nine-to-nine’s
“Danger! Electricity line!” signs.
Deadlines...
Telephone lines
Long and entangled like telephone line lines.
Telephone line fines, paid
To nourish telephone line vines.
Weaving... Over-under.
Mashed.
Confused.
Hooked up on telephone line twines.
Trapped between the (04)’s and (09)’s.
Or is it C4’s and Tech 9’s?
Underground cables? No. These are landmines.
Landlines, to our foreheads add lines. Call them headlines.
HEADLINE:
 “Information highway knocked out by internet lines.”
A lineage lost.
Punch lines...

3. Women – Uhuru by Sammantha G Ndlovu

Photograph by Resta Nyamwanza

 As I  bled my soul on the microphone
From a place within me thats tattered and torn
Shattered by life’s social ills
that women swallow as bitter pills
Violeted and trampled upon
As the rest of the world simply looks on
I am the voice of womenkind
I speak the words that feed your mind

Women Uhuru , for a new day has come
Shout it onthe mountain, for your life has just begun
Let our voices resonate,
let us shout as one
The power in the voice is way beyond that of a gun

I cannot be silent, and I can no longer weep
I can no more suffer, while the planet is asleep
I cannot accept the rape and violence in the home
And no longer can I accept
To spend the night alone.



Thursday, February 17, 2011

Pindirai by Mgcini Nyoni

Photo by Resta Nyamwanza


We have danced
and sweated
sweated and bled a river.
We have sung and prayed
We have played our drums
have hit our percussions
to a shrieking crescendo
prophets clad in
red
green
yellow
have shaken our heads
into dizzy confusion
dirty fingers inserted
into girls and mothers.
We have sung
and danced
and prayed
And have hit
the same brick walls
We look up to the heavens
and say
Pindirai Mwari*

* Pindirai Mwari – please intervene God.

Monday, February 14, 2011

Mother and Child by Anesu Katerere



Old war lord barbell fish in tin pot roasts
Eyes curse tormentors one more time before bursting into soup
Conscious that it’s grave be the stomachs of two fatherless
Generations
Never school, nasty disease between thighs
But mother and child

Seven day school uniform, hips for stale chips
But mother and child.
Two figures lost to the present
Dipping unwashed hands into old chemical container
Now plate
Smiling sadly
But mother and child.

ShareThis