JEREMIAD: "WHEN VICTORY PROMISED" BY RADICAL LIBERTINE

The deaf could hear the ear blasting chimurenga farrago discordant songs,

spitted desultorily

by cigarette-burnt

and _kachasu_ scalded black lips.

Blind man could visualize dead corpses

Some smiling—

if not smelling

Some pleading— 

for mercy

Some demanding —

for retribution

All lying motionlessly on the debris of bombs,cartridges spitted by AK47 and grenades which hatch genocide.

Alien voice of the dumb,

could be heard

echoing in the hollow annals of sanitized history.

Singing liberation struggle tunes,

Seasoned with pregnant grief

Raped by the sword of the oppressor.

Tunes burst the expectations of the tyrant

dehorning the dictator

With unqualified decibels.

Lame crippled cattle headers—

slaves

Danced, to the vigil jiti tunes

unknown freedom dances.

Drumming demonically the ashy ground like a jackhammer,

provoking gulf of dust—

rejuvenating the militant war spirit.

Glossary

Kachasu is a shona term for strong home made illicit inebriant.

Home made spirit liquor.

BLESSING S. CHIGUNDA

(Radical Libertine)

 2023

-Zimbabwe

The poet persona laments over the neglect of promises by the upper class of a society.