Charles Mungoshi

Intense blue morning
promising early heat
and later in the afternoon,
heavy rain.
...

Dotito is our brother
He is strange
He will not play with us on the streets.
...

The torrid silence of the October sun.
Miles upon miles and miles of burnt-out plains.


Suddenly you realise
you are talking loudly to your
shadow.
...

You, talking to my mother
and sisters in the house.
Outside, my father and I
...

Now the pumpkin is ripe.
We are only a few days
from the year's first mealie cob.
The cows are giving us lots of milk.
...

This little boy wants me to give him
something his rich parents cannot give him.
He stands outside my door
...

This is the fifth warning
I won't speak to you again
I don't want to look through your kitchen
...

Poised on the thin edge of now
like a poleaxed tightrope walker
...

Sitting on the balcony
fingering a beer
I have bought
without any intention to drink:
...

And with the night
come my unfailing companions
the wind and the rain:
...

Since the time I learned that
property can be both
a blessing and a curse
...

It would be very convenient now
to kneel down in the gritty sand
and beat my chest
...

There is a school, a hospital, a street,
(Even a brothel, you say?)
Maybe two or more than two
...

A plane roars above
rattling the loose sheets of the roof.
Clearly he hears the click-click
of the barber's cold shears
...

She'll be coming in now
in a few minutes
out of the cold.
Warming the bed
...

We rarely talk now.
Between us
the children are quite happy
playing Indians and Cowboys
...

It is always very hard
to have or to find something to say.
if you honestly tell the others
...

You should have remained
hidden in the shadow of the tree
your hand raised at half-mast
(undecided whether to cover or not
...

Now there won't be any need
to tell our children
about the history of the struggle
of our gallant people's fight
...

In our land
We found a bird
that sings.
A bird
...