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NDABA SIBANDA - POEMS

7/19/2020

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Nominated for the Pushcart Prize and for Best of the Net, Sibanda is the author of 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, The Ndaba Jamela and Collections and Poetry Pharmacy . 
https://www.pagespineficshowcase.com/ndaba-sibanda.html.
https://ndabasibanda.wordpress.com/2017/03/26/first-blog-post/
https://www.amazon.com/Ndaba-Jamela-Collections-Sibanda/dp/1712864173
http://ourpoetryarchive.blogspot.com/2020/03/ndaba-sibanda.html
https://poetrypoeticspleasureezine.wordpress.com/2020/03/19/ppp-ezine-poetrypoeticspleasureezine-volume-4-issue-3-march-2020/

​Her Idiosyncratic Inscriptions

on the quicksand of life and time
she paddled without plummeting
through a sea of lows without lime   
she imagined a love without an  ending    
 
a love rooted in making mysteries
on the pages of readers` minds   
like lip-smacking strawberries 
and ear-massaging sounds
 
indeed at the heart of what she did
was grit & wit: she was superb  in her craft
her long pieces were distinctive  and lucid  
there was something salient in her draft
 
on the sheets and streets of time and history
she cultivated a profounder understanding
of love and relationships, it was all her story--
the flight of fright but never ever debarking!     ​

To Set Her Heart On Fire ​

​to set the much-needed dialogue in motion
there had to be poetry & poetry & devotion  
she didn’t mince her words at all, she hit it
she demanded & desired to see nothing short of it:
she called for an ecstatic expression of emotions 
a freely & furiously lively ,lovely exhibition of yens
a river filled with an  explosion of verve and verse
and that was her basis for an engagement, a discourse 

Our Dreams No Longer Dance Across The Sky

​You cannot be too high
I'm speaking directly to you Sky
You need to change for the better
Climate Change, right now, I`m bitter!
  
Sing me a song of a river that will dance with belief
Sing me a song that will bustle with a sea of relief 
And extinguish our miseries of dryness and drought
Our beasts are dying, our crops wilting, where is delight?
Sing me a song of a sky that won`t be too high for a downpour     
Our land now is bereft of grain, but sing of a rain that will soon pour 
Our dear landscape has become a playground for a merciless heatwave
Climate Change, you`re cruel & crude, a furnace that hasn’t come to save 
Your palms are unappealing, unpolished, unprecedented and unpredictable  
Sheep perish without a baa and clang, clang you ring your bell that is terrible!      

​The Values Of A Given Time And Generation

The Linkster Generation or Generation 2 is linked
To social media: on the net they gobble info, date
On the net they study, live and love, and get married
On the net they sometimes get blocked, robbed, right?! 

The Millennials were quoted as more assertive 
And socially liberal. With a stout sense of civic duty
And a healthy work-life-- they were vocal and active 
I think they were against conditions which were sooty! 

Be quiet…from the Silent Generation came the Generation X   
The 1960s saw some shifting social values: more ladies at work 
In an election a voter may crown their nominee via a bold ‘X’  
In the 1960s more divorces hollered, hovered like Noah`s ark!  

What`s the fuss about a generation and its age range?
19th century marked the naming of a 30 year- old generation 
Because of social change, a loose, lousy explanation that’s strange
An establishment was challenged, age-wise without a set definition!   
 ​

New Kids' Register Riddles

​2026: Marking The Preschool Register
Teacher: if you're present, say 'present'
And, if you are not here just say 'absent'

Corona 2020. Silence. Teacher: 'That's a pass!'
Wear A Mask.' Yes'. Teacher: Say 'present please'.
Lowdown. ‘Lockdown’. Teacher: ‘Lord have mercy!’
Can`t read this.’Qua…Quarrel?’ Kid: ‘I`m Quarantine’
Was Hands.' I'm Wash Hands'. Teacher: 'My apologies!'
Sanity-seizer. ‘I’m Sanitizer'. Teacher: 'For a reason!'
Coffee Fit 9.' l'm COVID-19'. Teacher: 'Sorry, whatever'
Self-lation.'I'm Self-isolation'. Teacher: 'Hmmm, l see'.
Loves.’l' m Gloves.' Teacher: 'Like hand in glove, kid!'
Pandemics. 'Absent' Teacher. 'Wow'. Kid: 'Coz l hate 'em'

He Called Himself Giraffe    ​

​That he was a towering figure was no debate
That he was a ‘giraffe’ was a rarity to celebrate
He called himself a giraffe, though some found it odd
He found it a tall order why they would fuss or be sad
Numerous souls on the streets raised eyebrows
Each time he appeared they gave him stares 
Not that he was a superstar by any measure 
 Out of courtesy, they would say it was a pleasure   
Oddly their gentility made him feel like an idol of sorts!
Behind his back they said he had a habit of saying truths 
Which meant that possibly he was economical with the truth! 
Maybe people didn’t understand his register, he was no youth
I`ll die if I don’t read a book week in week out, he would say
Liar or a bookworm? Did his hyperbole get other people astray? 
In the face of other people`s incompetence, he said: great job!
Was that a lie or a piece irony? When they said liar he didn’t sob. 
One analyst said anyone who called himself a giraffe had an idiolect  
Which could confuse people, and on how to say things he had to select 

Feel The Feat On The Horizon

​here`s to a fruitful year
hilly or dicey, don’t  tear

here`s proud Prospect Road 
hope our silent ,sure sword  

hooray to an attitude of victory 
high it heals even a hurting history! 



​Of Animal And Bird Parents 

​Let me put your parenting skills
Under the microscope, my thrills!  

You share your food with the young
You eat, regurgitate for the fledging

What childcare, what love & nurturing 
You, bird parents take turns food hunting

I adore how you bring food to the nest 
You feed the chicks as if you don’t rest!

You, dogs and cats hunt and share the kill
Mother dogs help the pups to eat to the fill 


I see animals bring down prey and feast
In a social order, in packs, this, that beast

I see parent animals teach their young
To walk, hunt & who says that`s wrong?

Apes & simians feed each other when caring
For the wounded or the ill, when …yes, dating!

I don’t know whether elephants teach their young
Courting, but yes, food choices & a good tongue!      

Her Finest Chef Ever

​His fiancée was on the edge
Of starvation, or that`s what
She disclosed as she entered
It was a windy and dusty day
Of his food—cockerel and rice--
His beautiful black bride tasted, 
Exclaimed: oh as sweet as ginger!
The stove regretfully watches
The real rooster that looks alive
And ready to crow as if to mark
The break of dawn…it has dawned
On me that my groom is one
Of the best chefs on this Earth!   
This must be sweet, sweet medicine! 
Its pleasantness has slain my starvation
Thanks, just perfect for this beautiful day!

Looking Up

​As the drunk teacher was saying:
The hum of the computer
Was a common feature 
In 5 BC one student
Was looking up:  
Anachronism 

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    

We Are Not An Error But The Idioms Of Our Era ​

​We are the idioms of our time, a huge cabinet 
We belong together, to this earth, this planet 

Why do we thrive in muddle and destruction? 
Walk in the ravines of unease and corruption?

Like words whose meanings cannot be found  
From the literal or dictionaries that are sound 

Let us be the proverbs: our lives are short
Let no hate thrive or live or receive support

Lessons on climate change need to be inferred 
From wise sayings, actions or so advised a nerd  

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 dance in poetic purity, power 
to come bounding to the shore!  
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