Seeing My Houselelujah Poem by Sarah Mkhonza

It is up on the hill
overlooking the valley,
they call the valley of heaven.
This is where, for me, the swod
was cut by the gods.
Yes it is real, yes and for next to nothing,
making me believe I was born
for nothing but this dwelling,
that stands tall among dwellings.

Something is intriguing
in the way it helps me to
eavesdrop on the elders
who have gone up there
since time immemorial.

Its windows are not just hallelujah,
they are windows from a song
that rises in the valley
and tehy sing houselelujah.

On the walls hang pictures,
of family when once happily,
we lived as one. Now I dream
from afar, and see this new house
on the wall on which hang pictures
in cedar frames.

If I could tell you how many years
I called the angel with no name
hoping this one word would bring him home,
I know you would think I am crazy.

I did believe I could have a houselelujah,
I sang about it on my knees and when I walked
all the way downhill in that valley, for I
saw the party at the hill, but the question
was discerned was not asked, even in my dream.

The houselelujah was not there yet.
In this dream all the lovely objects,
stand tall on the tables and all of them glass.
Why not me and then this one?
I prayed for the houselelujah?

Now the land is there, and the house
is in my dream, with the outside ready
for me to walk into the dream,
for it is my blessing done and finished
and I will live it be.

Can you be a guest at the party,
when the dream house is finished,
for you have read about it,
and can prove me wrong,
if it is not a houselelujah.

I have dreamt of other houselelujahs,
One came through and the one that
never showed up at the gate,
was the one I long to return to,
for it was in a land full of all
the objects in my dream,

Cast iron this and glass this;
map of Africa this, and yoke on
my gilded horse that. There, all
things spell success and comfort,
but they are all under ground. Silt,
sand and the vagaries of this world,
tell me I only have a quarter.
Take me to the land of my dreams!
It is about vision and less about money.