Insomnia...

With a stuffy nose, 
And so many thoughts
That no one knows 
How is one meant to sleep?

Awake with me are God, 
Truck drivers and whores
While everybody snores
Lost in their dreams so deep

I wish I could hit pause
On life and it's blows
On time, as it goes
Time I still fail to keep

For as the thickness of night grows
We all know what follows 
A promised daylight that's supposed
To end the nights that weep

That day draws near, dawn feels so close
Insomnia, this is the worst time you chose
To visit me, trap me behind the doors
So leave, do not call or speak after the beep

By Naomi Lialabi (Zambia)

photocredits: www.topix.com

Child With A Broken Soul.......

I am afraid of voices in suicide
notes that were never seen
And whispers of spirits 
left in stainless steel police coffins
Enchanting me into a black hole

Words that drag me to the darkness
in which they were written
Make me find refuge in their grimness
as if it were my mother
Am I a child intrigued by the writer
because I have her broken soul?

My thoughts are tinkets hanging 
in the shrink's office
To please patients whose epiphany 
is knowing that they are better than others

My thoughts are naked and helpless
tugged by death and its accomplices
And mysteries of the unknown purpose
of enduring everything here
These thoughts seek any type of clothing

They find dumped garments of proselytes
Who soon want their clothes
back when sin repullulates
No tailor can make the right measurements
The nakedness can only be covered
by those who poured out their souls

-As broken as their souls were

By Dzikamayi Chando (Zimbabwe)

Picture credits: www.google.com

‪#‎Note to him...

I know I’m not your type
Not that girl...with wide hips and hugging jeans
I’m just the girl with wide eyes hugging my journal
Reciting my thoughts to blue black inkblots on a white canvas
I know I’m not your type
You know the kind with catwalk confidence and charisma
I’m just the girl walking silently as the cat
Hoping to escape the crowd's gaze
So I can confidently tuck my thoughts in between these pages before my mind walls rise
So I can smile to their charismatic indulgences in the serenity of the self -thoughts of when I met you in my thoughts
Introduced you to the crimson coloured sky
As when we ran barefooted to our happily ever after
If only for that moment fairy tales existed
But I’m not your type
So I snap back to reality
Back to the truth
Because I’m not that girl willing to get entangled by white sheets
Held prisoner in invisible stains of sin and deceit
I’m just the girl washed clean by the blood
Whiter than any sheets
Having rubbed off the scarlet letter around my neck
I’m the girl at the cross
Waiting diligently
Waiting for daybreak like the night watchman waits for morning
Waiting for my Adam to finally rise up
Know that I am his your type
And will both recite these poems found in locked hands
Rocking back and forth the past and future
Yet still locked in the present innocence accompanied by locked gazes
With beaming faces and giggles as a lace
I am the girl who doesn’t have to be your type
Just the woman you never wanted to admit you needed
One sent by God to you.

By Dangie Pheto (Botswana).

picture credits: www. cindy-saul.blogspot.com

A NEW SONG...

My heart, my soul longs for a new song
A song of peace and serenity
A song of hope and joy
A song of freedom
Liberating the inner man
A new song my heart awaits

Counting every minute
I wait for my song
Only my song would come from one man-God Himself
In whom music to my ears would be rest
Anguish no longer holding
Frustrations, fears all held illegal
A new song my heart believes for

With the hope of His glory
I am enchanted...
I am captivated to hope
That my new song will come to stay
That i may tell my story
Of His peace and rest
That overwhelms my inner being

Ironical it seems
Of my new song
Because its not only my song
But humanity's lament
A cry for peace
The salvation of man!!!!

By  Tshepiso S Bagwasi
photocredits: www.google.com

Skin deep....

We raise the dust,
just to know where the wind blows,
I'd trade our lust,
just to know how real love goes,
what's love without trust?
that's very simple,
A relationship that never lasts,
making you feel like you need more,

I gave you my heart
and you gave it back
I know it came with four chambers
but you still tore it apart
I feel really dumb
because I still want you back
After all the lies, the different guys
I miss your touch
and I still want you by my side
is this suicide or real love
its not had to decide
I promised to give you all I had

I've truly tried to sweep
you off your feet
but it seems the broom
got stuck between your heels
I'm willing to give
you a second chance
but only if you'll love me for real
if you're not willing
send me a rescue team
that pulls you out of my blood stream
because in me you're skin deep
waters not shallow enough for me
to swim

By Kanyanta Chisashi (Zambia)

photocredits: www.google.com

LOVE CRIED

I heard your heat beat
Against the walls of your chest,
Pleading to be let out.
Pleading to love.
I held you in your hurting
And our hearts entwined
As yours cried love into your veins.
I have never seen love cry,
But I heard your heart wail.
It's voice was pierced with sorrow,
Silent sobs racked the inside of your chest cavity
Behind a cage of composure
And face of stone

By Esnala Lahru Banda (Zambia)

photocredits: www.google.com

On Sithole

How can I be a racist when genocides persist?
Hutsi fought the Tutsi over the shape of a nose,
Now Azania burns because her children insist
Similarity is more than skin. Machete blows
Expose a truth long denied: the devil is within
Not on the surface of the skin. As brother falls
Before brother, Azania turning Cain on kin,
Hector Peterson turns stain of the kettle’s calls;
Colonialism and slavery, a mirror, our mockery!
Angels and demons both have dark shadows,
The similarity of skin does not make one kin-ly,
I’ve seen too many black knives in dark corridors.
My brother is the wind beneath my feeble wing,
Whose voice is mine for the same song we sing.

By Philani Amadeus Nyoni (Zimbabwe)

photocredits: cnn news network.

Beatrice...

sometimes
i look out of the window,
rehearsing a reaction
and practising an apology,
but words elude me
and beautiful metaphors
will still fail to cover the naked truth,
so ugly, that it hurts;
it pierces through my heart
and leaves me hurting;
I'm rushing to the clock
hanging from my broken wall,
to stop the arms from moving,
but it's my time alone that stops.
relentlessly,
these spectres haunt me;
memories of the two of you,
her tiny head lying on your chest.
that was on the night i left
and wandered in the wilderness.
I'm now only kept warm by my conscience
when the sun leaves me at sunset,
reminiscent of how I had left you.
my heart sobs...
we were so tenderfooted
and barely seventeen,
a new life costs a fortune
and my pockets had no diamond.
hear the vibration of my heart
and realise how sorry i am.
i hope you name our glory Nobulumko
- she who has wisdom will liberate us.

By-Ndumiso Mdayi (South Africa)

photo credits:https://www.google.co.zw

illusion

let me see beneath your cosmetic,
borrow me your agelines I want to draw emotions on the air
let every stroke tell of my lust and longing.

Let me see behind you mirror, 
am I the fairest of them all, why is my shadow missing,
are we playing spot the difference? 
run along and catch the stalker.

Let me see beneath my imposter
potraying me wrong like a blurry picture 
Iam not me, just pretending to preserve your smile.

Let me see beneath your underwear,
after that I will dicth you like a hot potato,
then I will show you my true colours, but you are a girl you are colour blind.
So you will go to the next guy
and he will break another button of your blouse

By Abel Dube (Zimbabwe)

Picture credits: www.google.com

Forget me not...

Forget me not

For the times we have spent together

The times we spent apart yet willed to be together

The times we have been together yet willed to be apart

The times we have been together and felt together

Remember me always

Forget me not

For the laughter we shared

The laughter we shared unsure if we were laughing at the same things

The laughter we shared and wished we’d laugh that way again

The laughter that brought us closer together

Remember me always

Forget me not

For the tears we shed together

The tears of joy and sorrow

The tears that made us unravel the inner beings in us

The tears that separated and brought us together

Remember me always

Forget me not

For the kisses we shared

The kisses that made us dread and yet want to see each other again

The kisses whose meanings we sought in the depths of our hearts

The kisses that we always will cherish

Remember me always

By Vimbai Beritah Chinembiri (Zimbabwe)

Picture credits; Hotel Rwanda-The movie