Hatizvide by Mgcini Nyoni

Zviye zviye zvekupisana magaro
kutyorana maoko namakumbo
kureperana vakadzi
nenyaya dzamavhoti

Zviye zviye
zvekuti ivo vanotaura pamadiro
nezvenyadzonya, chimoio
Asi kana is totaura
Nezve kupondwa kwezviuru zvevanhu
nevaye vemabhareta matsvuku

Zvonzi mataurirei nyaya iyi
vasungei!
vakandi mujeri!

Zviye zviye
Zveichi chematama
zvekudzidzisa vana mhiri kwamakungwa
ugara kuSandton
kuita sevaya vaya
Ichi chikatonga chichatinetsa

Zviya zviya
zvokuti kana ndataura
vaye vaye vemagogorosi matema
vonditevera
Hatizvide!!

Your Father

Your father
is a man in a red beret
1983
Carrying a rifle
a bayonet affixed
blood dripping
A belly slit open.
Your father
is the man in the red beret
trained in Korea
there is blood
and hair
on his boots
An old man’s head
kicked in.
Your father
carries a smoldering gun
the villagers lie dead
They said
they don’t know
were the dissidents are
Your father is the man
in the red beret
forcing the villagers to sing
as they dig mass graves
for their mothers, fathers…
Your father’s stiff thing
burned into me
at age fifteen:
To emphasise his conquest
he whispered his
name into my ear
as I lay writhing in pain.
Your father
now an army captain
27 years ago
Chopped Mkhluli to pieces
the boy
not a Dissident
who had made
my loins
burn with desire
Your father
27 years ago
gunned down a mere shopkeeper
for being a dissident
Your father
was the man in a red beret
who extinguished
all feelings
of love
of desire
of hope.
Bitterness
hatred
and despair remain.
Your father
was the man in a red beret
who killed everything
in his path,
including chickens and goats.

Who gives a damn

WHO GIVES A DAMN

Five Rand here
Ten Rand there
Getting fucked
for a bar of chocolate
or a kota perhaps
WHO GIVES A DAMN
Barely sixteen
understanding not the situation
Is it sex?
Is it love?
Getting fucked for
the family’s daily bread
WHO GIVES A DAMN
Mama says
Umkwenyana wami
Because he brings groceries
now and then
and fucks the daughter
She gets HIV
gets pregnant
WHO GIVES A DAMN
Backyard abortion
missing death by a whisker
‘Umalume’ gets his turn
Then Hlatshwayo
the tavern owner
All for a packet of chicken pieces
Dead at seventeen
WHO GIVESA DAMN!