My Teens Poem by Phillip Nine Mafunga

In my teens, I knew no stress
I was neither poor nor rich
Was just'live 'n happy
Ate food 'n worried not'bout the name of dish
Valued sleep 'n not where I slept
Our poverty was uniform so it botherd none of us

In my teens I sure knew no stress
Only two situations worried me
My mom when am late back home
My teacher when my corrections weren't done
We'd no homework then, it was all play 'n fun after school
Suddenly, the sun'd go down
Stress is when mom screams your name..
In my teens we'd no tv but the radio
Through the radio I knew the world
Football radio comentary was legendary
Evans Mambara'n Charles Mabika
Choga Tichatonga Gavhure 'n Kingsley Sibanda
I literally watched football through their voices

Then the Sunday Mail 'n Sunday News
The Parade, People, Time, Readers Digest
My stars, my celebrities cuttings I sourced
Reuters gave me the world affairs
Shehu Shagari, Sani Abacha, Milton Obote
Beautiful sounding names then

In my teens I never stressed over news
Beirut, Belfast, Grenada or Monrovia, I cared less
Mugabe, Thatcher, Reagan, Botha, Malan
Names that I loathed for I was a young commie
Nkomo, Castro, Ceaucescu, Brezhnev, Andropov, Gromyko
The young me idolised for I was a commie
PHILLIP NINE MAFUNGA
2 April 2025