Sunday, March 1, 2020

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


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