NDABA SIBANDA

NDABA SIBANDA

Breathing Under A Sea Of Thirstiness

the young were encouraged to aspire

the old citizens sought only to respire

none ever sought to writhe and expire

yet all were under the water, thirsting--

they battled with inhaling and exhaling

under a mafia system that was ruining

The Unreadable Dictionaries

 Of Our Actions

We are the idioms of our time, our sphere

for we belong to the same era, ecosphere,

yet, were are like measly words whose ovaries

and gist no soul can establish from the glossaries

of our shady actions. A life whose paths lead to ruin

as the world struggles with floods or lack of rain.

Our consumption patterns, our careless lifestyles,

our previous actions and decisions are our dirty files

that should be our proverbs for posterity and stability

yet we fail to infer from the lessons of our stupidity,

from wise sayings. A life whose paths lead to ruin

as the world struggles with floods or lack of rain.

Ahead Of Themselves

They came along dressed in joy

Their national flags set to decoy

They drummed, drank, sang, danced

Till time tottered, tilted, talked, tranced

They got ahead of themselves with delight

They stole a hive of hearts into the night

When She Was Doing

Her Thing

abandoned but adopted,

uplifted at a tender age

her first love was singing

she didn’t ditch it but later

came on poetry and pulled

dazzling darling Sisa  away

her poetic exploits

manifested in magic

she kept eyes glued

ears riveted, soothed

hers were pretty pieces

performed with verve

her presence was perfect

an infectious experience

undeniable, compelling

her style just engrossing

the very prescription for fun

her poetry poured out the Sun!

one felt her brilliance, her beauty

her freshness pruned into pureness

ideas floated with glee, a sea, a tide

of tears toured out of one`s heart

for her voice had vitality, her words

had a wildness, a will, wisdom and wit

it detained, constrained a reader,

a listener, an outsider, a viewer

to forget one`s cares, woes, wars

to feel the deepest, highest of art

to party in poetic purity, power

to come bounding to the shore!

NDABA SIBANDA

NDABA SIBANDA: A 2019 Pushcart Prize nominee, Ndaba`s poems have been widely anthologised. Sibanda is the author of The Gushungo Way, Sleeping Rivers, Love O’clock, The Dead Must Be Sobbing, Football of Fools, Cutting-edge Cache: Unsympathetic Untruth, Of the Saliva and the Tongue, When Inspiration Sings In Silence and Poetry Pharmacy. His work is featured in The Anthology House, in The New Shoots Anthology, and in The Van Gogh Anthology, and A Worldwide Anthology of One Hundred Poetic Intersections. Some of Ndaba`s works are found or forthcoming in  Page & Spine,  Peeking Cat, Piker Press , SCARLET LEAF REVIEW , Universidad Complutense de Madrid, the Pangolin Review, Kalahari Review ,Botsotso, The Ofi Press Magazine, Hawaii Pacific Review, Deltona Howl, The song is, Indian Review, Eunoia Review, JONAH magazine, Saraba Magazine, Poetry Potion, Saraba Magazine,  The Borfski Press, Snippets, East Coast Literary Review, Random Poem Tree, festival-of-language and Whispering Prairie Press. Sibanda`s forthcoming book Notes, Themes, Things And Other Things: Confronting Controversies ,Contradictions And Indoctrinations   was considered for The 2019 Restless Book Prize for New Immigrant Writing in Nonfiction. Ndaba`s other forthcoming book Cabinet Meetings: Of Big And Small Preys was considered for The Graywolf Press Africa Prize 2018. Sibanda`s other forthcoming books include Timbomb, Dear Dawn And Daylight, Sometimes Seasons Come With Unseasonal Harvests, A Different Ballgame and The Way Forward. Ndaba blogs here: Let`s Get Cracking! – Ndaba Sibanda - WordPress.com