9 ro ME. BA A:anthology of Poems £ Zimbabwe ox MP 167 Pieasant RARE, ZIMBABWEThen God said, “Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit twee that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itseli, on the earth’; and it was so. [GEN 1 vs 11] ished 1995 = n published 1999 © > —— \ Copyright @ Roland E.T. Mhasvi No, pare of this stem or transmitted, iv any form or by any means, he onic, mechanical, photoco . Without prior permission from the anthor. ISBN 0 908301 014 Printed in Zimbabwe by Jong ive Printing and Publishing Co. (Pyt Lid., 14 Austin Road, W: gton, Harare. Telephone. 621451/6. Published by Roland Mhasvi Publishers PO Box 6823, He Teicphene 331100cana alwys p y IF [5° iS [al CONTENTS Dawn 1984 Moving House A Winter Farewell No Cause to Stir Sorrow The Pond The Flowers of Yesterday Suaws Auntie, The Doiler Bride The Mourners The Pillar and the Wal! y Way Swinging Free Yhe People's Chef Paper Walls Heartlands Confessions Menstors at Play The Rock ifferent Sokes A Thousand Years 2 Uncle Ben Echoes We are the Coming Begging. Bowl Spirit of the Woods Sunsei -15-- 16 19 2i 3 b YY 28 30 33 35 36 39€ ,@ 1, DAWN 193. ek e wa Drs Vy SION « dry cracks of the mind fill up with sand, Dusty acres of self-doubt spread, Creeping jaggecly on, mo Leaving in their wake, like the ruins single o Of an ancient civilisation, \ +h envi The broken fragments of a despairing vision; C adhe H So: that come hurtling down mind walls and Smash into the blood clots that echo he empty chambers of a lonely heart. eeape 4 = arkening gloom spreads ove the prostrate land, the barren wastes of a sick Vee sentinels stand wai sle. oping s sand. blasied wastelands chum and heave, Whil Rocking in the shadows and leeways Of a forgotten dream. Neu leon FAMOEY are of radiance and power that . By the minute grows, . And lo! from the East tufted grass, ing on, in green conquest Of a peasant brown, ‘To bind togethe nm Of a lost world From the hidden nei Ba glow awakening ofa Sy coding sands veAn andSiowly, the shattered scene begine to integrate. The East is a blaze of fiery glory, The land a spread of golden dreams . And my mind - stili a shadowy playground Of doubts chasing fears - : Awaits the touch of a single smiled ray From the lips of t enchanting East, And perchance a wondrous little more, In this glorious late 1984 dawn! . sx tot od : yO ST men eal ior ny oper age TERR ysmhaehoric hire { \ L 2 MOVING HousE-*o'*° Theyhad laid him flat qn his back One qeak-springed bed, ————— Ina dingy little room gleomed over, With the wan flush of a sorb wilight, Lit down by a fading light bulb____l ge erelit That flickered nakedly if fits and starts, ~ LEW 2 fesble old blindman-”- Reeling his way forward against a surging cowd, Ceriain cnly of a despairing yearning For light to illuminate his fate, And the ay that echoes emptily ot Down the writhing darkness of his world. ey watched him, silent ghosts ~ C¢ on in half light of that dingy little rooDy, re fevhon, his breath with laboured incustry, ax’ vith a gourd Sind, Time and time againa ghost’ ‘Would reach cut with shadowy hand, Claw darkly to mark and mark again @SS° rAree With a watery cross the buming brow, To ease the burden of an old man’s body Pregnant with a uinety-year-old soul, We As 40 9 Caught up and overwhelmed at last In the last labour of its terrestrial toil. They saw his chest riseand fall Riseand fal) beneath the rey heard the wheezi Winding through the ruins of an open mouth: This clearly 4 ng otk moans doThe breath that rattled and clattered Re ald Tn the emptied chambers of his cases +\s_ t They watched the frazzled nostrils That cracked the edif ico LET YM Gsed veni; The mouth that gaped in the front swall - jammed ajar; The teeth that flotindered in their guns Like fallen pillars, and the breath hovered } ber od -in Li fi ell ie mes In his neighbourhood -in linge ing farewell- |, To an old house pre-condenavied wong in the azrse of all humanity. Sing oad ates : Olea hat As the light bumed low, a blot ofblcod - lt air, they heard the old mee ne 2 a n draw up both his iegs, Qo a 5 ing in the iimcless sleep oF a foe down in an almighty gasp\o \\0 £ and = tenihty VES reoin; Usro\ical ral nditis his Vieht - es ts, not still shadows: ‘h . nan ¥ Now ¢Wi nog te 3% \ WINTER EAREWELE ~ dby the crackling fireside -faced women knelt, Th + lea ing faces bathed . treincand! eofa warm amber light, In the incandescent flar r i Their flaming eyes 4 blazing flash of inner sight ‘Asof fiery light flung through windows, Burning holes far into the smoke-filled night, ‘As they writhed in the agony old-fashioned love. Of the stow-boiling ambers of their ye watched therm, We, the newly fashioned Children of a technological awakening, Through their make-shift windows Spouting the gmoke and flames of an Inviting us, ig! t travellers In the electronic twilight of our doubts To approach the rude hearth of our long-lost home, The long-forgotten foundry in whose crude fires you an old world: d Tonce were forged. We hesitated in the distance, ~ Half-flicked in a pale orange gleam, Our cold backs mimersed In the inky ARS ofan ice-colil night. My eyes, waking up at last, ceught the distant glow, Tre half-remembered promise of Spring, , ’ As yours reflected in glassy walls Their cold query of this souvenir heartware, This strange warmth of a remote world ‘ Dimly perceived in the mists of history. © eS we stood differently disposed, n2 lost in the light glar i The other lost and ‘ed ofthe wingy Noel Tn the heated glow of the dark South. 5A bright f Of a sitep Perhaps you remem Of the Ages rammed dow? Perhaps you Vico, inan Your deep frozen. heart coul 2 ancent beat of a so iuicken to the Hicker hearth fire lowering Tobserved you in tt ight dawning in vour mind, a anity. g humanity a bloom-flushed fandiy. ed world without of vour home-cor Garkness of your soul ical heartlan, ‘Oned tous, of Summer erp in hee jag‘The fires that sparked in the feasting hearths Of ancestral homes, Licking with playful tongues The line-carved faces of ancient women Who fanned with gurgled prayers a The burning hopes of their cares. oes \o one . \ And I sat and wondered, ern In the warm fields of my heart, Whether on some false Northern n day, on Blowing hot and cold ju P° Upon the lurid cerebration acl _ Of a blistered intellectual sunset~ You would forsake ever The snow bound wastes of the mind, And fly across the deserts And barren expanses of our blighted past To the warm and hearty welcome echt ye? 1° Of a simple country hearth “tv “Kh Where the fire painted in yellow streaks of gold The warm joys on our faces. J sat there and floundered In the cold ashes of a burnt-out dream, Chilled to the soul In the cold blast Of your winter farewell! Oth ype Pn CANS Syraksyp:eta es 3 NOCAUSETCSTIR Phe Sleep, dear Heart, there's little cause to stir, Pulse gently through the brave hours of your waking, : Cuddied softly in the bosomed fortress of Nature. GCC 4, Rest quietly ‘midst the deep-sheltered valleys of home. Reck noi what cares prow! the darkness without; Perel not what strange Hovghis move the world, Coch & 1V7/ wrt As raise cases consalalvay Upon charting graveyards, With m ly wings and trumpet voice rule the rest, Or whoin the shunned backyard of sraaller men 1 g shaleesper 70 als &)9 Twitching in the grey light ofdawn the suinrnons to obey: ‘The echoing, call faskes divoush feet-footed shadows - spered voltly crough bruiting Brass Avid woeping suena, POESENIKE cUhaN Mirrored i gh jeweled dow driy o-deaning : dau bulb one Gye de eb and stir to the mn mud iuis On “Co rar wiry of the Season. with joy the costumed gary 8aot for you, dear Heart. Sieep the sleep of peace. Pulse gently through the nights and days of your sojourn. Beware the genile rustlings of love's flighty wings, That flutter on the thrilling threshold of a dream. Net different are they from Woe’s mighty wings T That smash and beat on the carking anvil a fateful forge. Our love is a broken-winged bird tumbling through The dark emptiness of our spinning cerebral worlds, Wobbling on a swan song towards plasmic flames To be bom again the flight of broken wings to endure. The sun swirls in the smoking flames of liquid fire; The wind howls and shricks in violent jaded streams; worid unreels and wobbles in wild and giddy circles: > in the canyoned mouniains The rampant riotous rivers Rush headlong, stumbiing Ar shing down rock-shattered cou eaeter Whilst in the j in the great lakes, the 3, the mighiy. waves roarand ré Gouging eye] holes | upon the bréaking skull Of the world’s remains. mL T Waris Everywhere the toothed army of loveand Woe, Bites and gnaws and blights and saws in andent lore. Hiark the fiery ramble of Fate Vomit boiling rick at Pompeii's feet! wistoric alt Mark with what cornlempt dees Nature spit st our pride of sculptured feats! ck with Age and crumpled brow enus shrine of drearns and woe! edn ur V Yet steep on, sweet Heart, : ro Througn the wer of gods ‘gainst men, e world, for all its grandeur 9Of sun-streaked dawns, its glitter of light summery days ng cclour-flushed gardens, lis gamour of gold-spangled bowels And rainbow-serled skies Is buta dead glimpse cf ider dreams ina smouldering ruin. its dazzling sunseis must yield place To adeathly nighizet, Deep down where the bulging bulb and the rooting seed Sicep on giddy nightmares tl! the shrieking bugle Summons them to yet another futile run Around the course. grass weeps silently. “ees in fusious pomp gallop the hunt drenched ficids . cattored wastes, wed wy yy hack. fresh porie 1 alin t glinting sword ghtanc : vuits landsecpes rise in thi sigh Sep acntarnidst Cie \ sycatings floods, Yod rec ¢ festering blisters tering heat et at blood storing TARE Over ‘ Be over uniging, ; Seand Mandering shot ven the oreates : ee $ est comfort! rid alas! - arigd lo Heris Ae hvough it walked ole ‘ procession of a thousand blind’‘men groping, the dark \- flaming torches in their hands, and I knew, > In the gloom of my World-ivellry “heart, ne VThen the sun came up on the morrow . Over the grim iron grey of the East, Tt -deofblind-visoned cats CHAOYITIO ag the paths of the promised plains, yet cing to their blood-flaming torches ightson po others the way to dusty sorrow, 1c ae y SOTVORW, g¢ blind spot of their darkened brains.‘ ep OP TMA e \perown & aA The basined pond rippled clear with water Fresh from the drenching early morning rain: : ; Light played so softly through the sparkling waves +9 And, as looked, came into view the isle Palms waving in the golden flush of sun! 5 Then came the frowning siudge with my first plunge, | sa= The flotsam and jetsam of my soiled life Pounding my shoves in wrinkled dandruff waves, Burying with carrioned scurf my Elixir ~~ —- — oe Asiny life pond eyed me with sicklied age, NO SENG aye of age had finally dosed, fins waves | had ‘rozen stiff in the pend> Breor GN Waren against the wi ine sum leaned West, casting fe down led waves of ye ‘ to half-uprig! tent at the mbrored waterway at now rippled down the top of my head, Drowning in tising tides of age the land Where before the bloom of my youth had sprung! e FX that evening ing of miy life, nan ug ened mmed eves the fadin, wned slowly in the rising Pas v the last frond 5 eat vt own the grim edge s And dissolved into the thick. ning Serle May QS That clamped my knees in z ISIE waves of chill. Mn oS lh the murky world of Anaosthesia, or Wrecked in my rake-routed body, 1 croaked - Land Ahoy!” in the doom-cracked voice of Age. 12( ‘ \ Z THEELO' sxe Move over, Green Man, the war-made Heroes Are retumed from the shrapnel-chastened bush Where children were planted in bomb-chumed earth - Ploughed down in mass graves of furrowed acres, Where crosses matted the black earth like straws. Watered in the blood spills of the bush waz, Children sprouted through the battle-worm soils, And everywhere clamoured in flaming shoots. ERS OF YESTERDAY gue ~ When the children were war-forged into men, Flowering upon the rocky outcrops Of the war-torn lands, they crept down the hills, Besiaged the valieys in blis ning red dlotting with blood the homely greens and browns That basked in the yellow calm of the sun! ‘They flamed through the cold nights of their waking, And shook the sleeping world to smoking dawns. As the world woke up to the red war-men Whose bullet voices cracked above the land, And rang the changes of the new Order, The Ole World of high mountains and low vales, Of old plains that nest Jed towns and cities, Rolled away and was dissolved into Myth, And uncovered lovelied lands that stretched far To the deadly Fats of rebuilt Futures. Forged in the foreign clitnes of wrong ideals, Litile green man cringed in the darkest nooks Of the new Garden, like a thing forbid. “The Flowers of Yest dav had become The Weeds of Tomorrow, and the war-men 12the fields, whetting their blood shot st in the burst of anew assault, on weeds that palled the night-found fields. etarchy Star-0o: owers of Yesterday bloomed fainty ead level glare of the West sun: vrinking hills you shriveled in silence, und you the piains seethed and howled, gainst vour hills in the spreading gloom.8. STRAWS Your eyes flutter in my sighslike butterflies 4 { And fan with a breath of air my hot face, « Whilst your full lips, parted in gentlesong, ; Drown me in a drenching shower of cold words, And I clutch at straws in the rising floods. Your face glows like the dawn of a fresh day, And my hut smokes in the grey light of mom, Whilst your smile, - streaks of fire across my skies,- Roasts my heart in sizzling tongues of gold fires. And I clutch at cold words to dowse the flames. —_ Your hair grows like a cool darkling forest, A dense thicket brushed by the idle wind, When I traverse your plains that lie before I find the way beset with thorns and soon, I stumble back through straws that thatch my heart.” As morning wears on through your flutt’ring eyes, Your butterflies begin to fade away, And your love songs begin to grate with age, And your cold words retum to dust, Still, the straws and floods live on my mind. Then, as your forests are smitten with Time, And your cold face darkens in the moonlight, xt, And your smile flickers in the storming winds, And your words scatter like the dust of Age, Where shall be the straw your doubis to clutch at? As the night curtain falls upon our stage And the cold world crumbles all around us, Our wasted youth palls in the fading day. « : And when your eyes dim in the thie ‘ning dark, | Chatch at me -I shall thatch your stone-cold heart. 159 AUNTIE She spoke in tones of great concem eas ; For fear we might mislay her sense se a) And err the way some girls had done And linge: long inside the fence. She was Auntie of modem timies - The old Tete* of yore was gone! She wor a pair of bluish jeans tec And looxed upon my dress with scom, We gathered round cur sweet Auntie t jacked ner gifts of words around her Precious views their troubled worlds. fd list their aunts Jats. ay nes grat; , loci of this wouid catise some Pain, As some b ho knew regret, A girl was made of valued gold; "Aunties refined her t3a And when the prove: The girl would daze} DIAS are com: 2. Pe Mae pe 4 wos complete, OBO rt aay “ith her glini. PENCAci af AUS is Othe A ing, SEQ piesa ‘sexchange, “AN joa pp ar so fine. WIPA Wh . Levsala © i Bock to bey, as Stoo bey houlcd care lo rais? her fee, Zz gais Shia Id is ne'er to0 high, High to} And fools do ger ensayo Shes well pit 16. Pre