12 POEMS
for I Am Generation Equality,
Realizing Women's Rights.
By Comfort Ndlovu
Age: 31
Sex: Male
From: Qinisela Village, Gwezha (Ward 3),
Matobo (rural) District, Matabeleland South Province, Zimbabwe.
Contact: +263 715 228 905 (WhatsApp)
+263 775 043 217 (Calls + SMS)
email: comfortndlovu4@gmail.com
1. (NEW) AWAKENINGS
New awakenings:
Dry leaves fly away
making way
to fresh ways
of green buds
taking charge of days
where hope once again lives -
where change arrives
and democracy thrives;
Call out the seasons,
Seek all the reasons
to behold and believe
a better life all can live;
Behold and believe,
Believe and live,
Live and let live!
Sow our dreams anew
under African sky blue:
Summer bless the seed,
Fill the need and wash away greed;
Autumn attend to our empty stomachs,
drown sorrow and all stretch marks...
Winter cool our brows,
Keep the green for animals all to browse;
Spring bring peace, let walls of division
fall;
Bring salt, bread, water and work for all,
Salt, bread, water and work for all.
2. I AM GENERATION EQUALITY, etc.
Did you see her fall?
Did you hear her call?
Did you hear her cry?
Did you notice blood in her eye?
Did you hear her shout
as she sought a way
of a cage full of rage?
To escape - she could not manage.
Did you notice, did you care
about the pain behind a wasted tear?
Do you recall the time and place
Where someone stole her innocence?
* * *
I shall not wait for her to fall
let alone in desperation wildly call;
I won't stand seeing her cry
and in shame behold tears tear off her
precious eye;
Never will let her sail and fail alone,
Never will leave her to struggle along on
her own;
I'll always play my part
to ensure she doesn't fall apart
For, 'tis my needful part - a part
perfectly to play
to save her thin skin from the rough sun's
ray;
I shall guard her way in and way out,
her way up and never let her down;
I'll hold her hand and bright'n her lights
of hope and comfort, for I am generation
equality,
realizing women's rights.
3. Acrostic: REALIZING WOMEN'S RIGHTS
*R* aising their voices in search of
*E* ager ears willing to entertain their
pain
*A* re oppressed women and girls
*L* iving in fear and
*I* n a constant struggle to speak out.
*Z* eal and zest the only salve
*I* n their bruised and swollen eyes,
*N* ights stretch, lights fade in
*G* rowing darkness facing their
*W* ay. Their smiles hide stretch marks
*O* f oppression and broken trust...
*M* ay mighty men arise, then, and
*E* nd empower them to see through tough
*N* ights and days, like
*S* weet seasons through rough years;
*R* ekindle the heat
*I* n the flames of
*G* olden hearts
*H* olding hands
*T* o sow seeds of hope for all
*S* catterlings of a fruitful land!
4. Acrostic: I AM GENERATION EQUALITY, REALIZING WOMEN'S RIGHTS
*I* am a rolling stone
*A* rolling stone I am
*m* oving downhill;
*G* rinding mountains to size,
*e* quality is my aim.
*N* o bed at night, no bread at noon,
*e* arly are my mornings. Alone,
*r* ising up against the daring dew
*a* ttempting to wear out
*t* he precision in me,
*I* roll on, constantly and persistently
*o* n hostile ground, pressures of which
*n* o man else can (with)stand
*e* xcept if compelled by insurmountable
Purpose.
*Q* uietly, yet quickly
*u* nder high roots
*a* nd above dead leaves,
*l* ove encourages my pace.
*I* rudely am rolling my rough shoulder
*t* o a plain where
*y* oung women and girls plainly
*r* aise their voices in search of
*e* ager ears willing to entertain
*a* ll their colourful concerns
*l* ying low in their hearts and minds and
*i* n their mouths willing to take a stand.
*Z* eal and zest my comfort; my shapeless
nature
*i* n a mission swallowed: "To be
*n* ine seasons in a night -
*g* iving a thousand voices to
*w* eary women and girls facing
*o* ppression and an order of
silence."
*M* ighty men arise (I'm one of them),
*e* nd rape, human trafficking and abuse
*NOW!*
*S* ee the rainbow falling -
*R* ebuild, reshape and restore
*i* ts wondrous ways of hope.
*G* rind not healthy efforts to the ground;
*H* eal the rough throats of a silent
generation;
*T* ry, by and with all means, not to
*s* ilence the stone!
5. LIMERICKY
There was a man who said: "Quality
of life can all be reached through equality
of opportunities and bright lights,
So, realizing women's rights -
I am generation equality!"
6. SHE NEEDS SOMEONE
Taking the sun blow by blow
A great struggle she faces,
A lone cloud surfaces
to cool her bruised brow
But that's not enough:
She needs someone to make her tough
enough to make it through the day -
to seek and find herself in mountainous
hay;
She needs a generation that realizes her
rights
without asking "why?"
7. LET HER SHINE
Give her your anger
she'll give you her fear,
Give her your hand
she'll draw you near;
Let her shine through the day
and you'll enjoy the light,
Take out her smile like wildfire
and you'll see flames through the night!
Strike her like Moses struck the rock
and you'll never see Canaan,
But, work constantly to ease her pain
and she'll - freeing the sky - make you
receive sweet rain!
8. TOIL
Sitting under the shade
I behold Mother stretching her hand
to plead, hoe-in-hand, with this hard land;
Sweat falling, dust rising, an inner tear I
shed.
She loves the field
and my ever absent father,
but no rain to give her some yield
nor Father to come home my stomach to feed.
She leaves the field
and pursues Market Square Road. The dusty
soil
she with heavy feet digs, has trapped her
Between hunger and toil.
9. MARCH TO FREEDOM
The stones cannot march to total freedom,
I shall march all the way, to free the four
winds.
The stones cannot, with a song, call for
equality,
I shall strongly shout in behalf of the
weaker sex:
"Female genital mutilation
's a misfortune in any nation;
Early child (and forced) marriages
stain the throne of The Rock Of Ages;
"Indecent assault
is like a mountain of salt
forced down an infant's throat!...
Incest is the best
description of worst
of injustices.
Rape's a rebellious shark that -
swallowing all seas -
leaves fish, fauna and flora
shamefully to die..."
The stones shall stay,
I shall sail away
to an open land
where I'll lend a hand
to every woman and girl,
well, there're many stories to tell
and many principles to teach
and so great some heights to reach
but mine prime responsibility
is to inspire a generation of equality
For I realize women's rights
and hence would urge women to realize
how urgent it is
for them for their own rights too to fight
like a swarm of bees
to a land of justice taking flight!
10. SECRETS
Secrets of Mount Kilimanjaro
take me to a better tomorrow;
Sitting on top of Kilimanjaro
I see a path the wise must follow:
An exchange of hands causing bloodshed
with arms that build a shade
for scatterlings of hope;
An en to the rope
that hangs and kills without an end;
I can see the xenophobic rod bend;
An end to ridicule and rape
from Cairo to the Cape;
Hands and races and sexes coming together
to give birth to a new weather
and a new set of feet
to walk the talk
and to walk tall towards total triumph -
tall trees tying torn pieces of our moral
fabric
back together again!
11. AFRICAN WOMAN, WHAT MADE YOU SO STRONG?
Taking life blow by blow
each day passing by, slowly,
You keep your head low
and your heart's hopes up -
unwilling to give up
yet willing to let go;
With a revolutionary song
strengthening every weak joint
You struggle along;
Though he made you wrong, so wrong
until you saw no point
of going on, you remained strong...
Submitting (and not standing up) to him
your sole comfort a heavy hymn
behind your walls of Jericho
unwilling to yield to the echo
of insults inflicted upon your weary brow
And fists hell unto your heaven he does
ceaselessly throw...
African woman, what made you so strong?
Is it because you've "seen it
all"?
African woman, have you seen it all?
Do you still care 'bout the diff'rence of
right and wrong?
Is there no longer a pulse in your breast
that still hopes for the best?
Maybe it's because you've seen it all:
You saw the blood of your loved ones fall
while houses of oppressors pushed limits
off the sky;
Maybe it's because you were made to pass by
a thousand rotting bodies of the ones you
once shared
this life's joys; while fleeing from your
village burning.
Is it that kind of bad?
You saw a crab feast on its children:
First, your daughter being drugged and
dragged into incest;
Second, you've got to live with that smell
of oil
that comes from Western Wells that
swallowed your son -
forever lying lost - never to get cover of
coffin nor home-soil;
Third, you no longer dread the colour red:
You saw once, a neighbour's daughter, raped
and covered in it. You witness, daily, her
future in hell trapped;
Fourth, your boy who'd gone to the North
long ago
came back recently, with men who'd forced
him to go to war,
All of them one eye and one arm less;
Fifth, you hear about your husband going
places
preaching about equality, women empowerment
and promotion (and protection) of their
rights
But you see a different man(ster) coming
home to break bedroom lights
and make sure you have sleepless nights.
12. LITTLE LIGHT
I've got a little light,
I'm going to make it shine
Not for the world to see
But for me my path to find;
I've got a wish to climb a mountain.
I may not be fast, but I'll continue to
climb
Not for the world to see me
But for me the world to see;
I've got a desire to see the world
through an eagle's eye -
to see how equality can be realised
in this our generation;
how women's rights can be upheld
And what my contribution must be;
The world's wide darkness
LAUGHS AT my little light:
I can't light up the whole world
BUT, I'm so very sure that,
my own light guiding
I'll reach the summit on time.
© Comfort Ndlovu, 10 February 2020.
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