NDABA SIBANDA

 

NDABA SIBANDA

 

Ready To Take Off For What?

 

The race for space

Shouldn’t be a costly disgrace,

To cruise to the moon, to Mars

Should be more decent than a gaze,

Satellites launched or put into orbit

Should be for growth, security and what?   

 

 

Seeking New Solutions And Visions 

 

She claimed that her life

was deprived of livelihood,

that pay never paid her a visit,

that delight was a dim delusion,

that lying love made her unwell,  

and that her existence was a shell 

hard-pressed for optimism and drive 

to impact change, to make sense of a life

of senselessness, that she sought the thrills

and skills of parenting her boorish pair of eyes

of hills and frills with new solutions and visions.

 

 

Just Her Opinions And Beliefs

 

She doesn’t intend to be offensively offside,

yet you don’t need to be on Sithabile`s side,

She says: you may flag, scare, scold or strangle me,

A mother`s love is a mirror of care, agree to disagree. 

 

Sithabile doesn’t always believe that Love and Sex

are synonymous in spite of that the worldly souls

seem to have applauded, attended and endorsed

their choreographed but contentious wedding.   

 

She doesn’t believe that Holiday always

depends on Hotel for business or survival

but that Hotel eats, breathes and dreams Holiday.

She thinks Holy Day is petulant, precious and personal.

 

She believes that Good Health and Happiness

are good bedfellows we should invite always

on our dear friends` wedding anniversaries

or birthdays. Please make a date with them.  

 

She doesn’t think that Money and Happiness are one

and the same, either. She believes that if she were to choose

between the two, Happiness would be the ultimate choice,

only if the absence of Money won’t be the absence of Happiness!

 

 

True, Blue Or What He Flew 

 

Like a chick

That will grow into a cock

Qhawe was spotted the day

He was born. Elders had a way

Of sniffing at a child`s greatness

They said he had a rare alertness

As legend would have it, Qhawe grew

You`ve no clue, how blue it was but he flew!

 

 

The Magic Of The Rainbow

 

There is something intriguing

about a rainbow of nationalities

and a kaleidoscope of ethnicities

not only about their various cultures,

their colours, creeds and languages,

their interests, hobbies and visions

their food, farming and fooling ways,

their menus, mannerisms and music,

but also, about their understanding

of the sense of humanity and history

rooted in their many traditional stories,

imbedded and loud in their ethnic clothing,

their lives rich in colour, diversity & detail,

teaching us about our diverse walks in life

and the need to embrace the human race

in its diversity and depth as it is both a unit

and a badge of beauty, ability and creativity

 

 

Poets And Their Planet

 

The avid reader wanted to read,

Perhaps to read between the lines

She had various unrequited questions

Are they aliens? Where do they come from? 

Where do they get their graceful language from?  

 

As she read and read between the lines she concluded

That the profoundest emotions they excavate from within

On a given subject or area or their experiences and visions 

Are their magic and engine that propel them to another planet

Whose words can move mountains, whose waters flow with flair. 

 

NDABA SIBANDA

 

NDABA SIBANDA has authored 24 published books and coauthored more than 100 published books. Sibanda is the author of Cabinet Meetings, The Immigrant With A Difference, Notes, Themes, Things And Other Things, The Gushungo Way, Sleeping Rivers, Love O’clock, The Dead Must Be Sobbing, Football of Fools, Cutting-edge Cache, Of the Saliva and the Tongue, When Inspiration Sings In Silence, The Way Forward, Sometimes Seasons Come With Unseasonal Harvests, As If They Minded: The Loudness Of Whispers, This Cannot Be Happening :Speaking Truth To Power, The Dangers  Of Child Marriages: Billions Of Dollars Lost In Earnings And Human Capital, The Ndaba Jamela and Collections 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 has received the following nominations: the national arts merit awards (NAMA), 2016 Mary Ballard Poetry Chapbook Prize, The Best of the Net Prose and the Pushcart Prize.