NDABA SIBANDA - POEMS

Ndaba`s poems have been widely anthologised . Sibanda is the author of Love O’clock, The Dead Must Be Sobbing, Football of Fools, Cutting-edge Cache: Unsympathetic Untruth, Of the Saliva and the Tongue,The Gushungo Way and When Inspiration Sings In Silence.  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 , The Ofi Press Magazine ,SCARLET LEAF REVIEW  Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Amazon.ca and the Pangolin.  ​

​A Conservationist’s Cough Of Concern

​as the environmentalist  took
a tour, he thought about green
beauty in relation to the ugliness 
of dead beasts, fishes, birds, 
insects and leaves-- lost lives;
his name was Jabu Mtshana,
as he caught sight of  the debris: 
the destroyed homes, he felt
a certain mass of sympathy 
and pain pinch, weigh on him,
and he remembered how folks 
used to probe, ask him whether 
ecosystems shaped and served 
as an agent of positive change
and regeneration  and titivation,
he thought about prescribed fires
and how they support wildlife 
by creating new habitat or 
improving existing habitat; 
but he looked around and saw 
devastation, dismay and death,  
wildfires had consumed it all--
wildlife habitat and timber, all gone,
the conservationist visualized
and sensed adverse developments: 
an upsurge in air pollution , eye 
and respiratory tract irritations,
coughing, nose and throat rage,
a decreased in lung function, 
a rise in stress, soil erosion, floods
and landslides, a climate change crisis,
he saw  losses of shelter, food ,money,
ashes ,hospitalizations ,burns, injuries;
and an increase  in carbon dioxide
into the sky, into the atmosphere ,    
and felt the tang ,smell of wildfires; 
he coughed, coughed and choked 
on the swelling plumes of the smoke 

A Pretty Prodigy From Binga

​she had been written
off by prophets of doom 
who define and confine
one based on their whims

hailing from deep down 
in Binga, rustic and poor, 
the diviners of disasters
looked down upon her 

but professors  professed
that her sharpness was 
on a raised, rare podium,
an acuteness`s stadium,  
and her  accessories and
clothing were intuitions
   
on a rump, Ntombi cruised
and danced and devoured  
a feast of words, a fashion
show of figures and facts 

a studious student studied 
like a supermodel catwalking
to high acclaim on a walkway 
of elegance and intelligence,  
her confidence conferred rays
of sunshine, polish and  poise
 
on the pages of assignments,  
exams and heavy cogitations,
she shamed scholarly schemes
and hypnotized her professors

A Cute Queenly Choreographer 
​

​she lurks on social platforms
like a dazzling mermaid born
in the lake of high-tech and info
 
her movements in dance or staged dance
are a  descendant of real royalty and ease
a colossal appetite for soul and mbaqanga
 
she epitomizes art or practice of designing
choreographic sequences, as she marches
a march of history that glows with memories
 
her dance compositions are an archaeology of diaries
that sail with my mind to the Christmases of yesteryear 
her moves collaborate in real time with a seamless skill
 
 

Searching For It High And Low ​

​I just knew that the glasses of sparkling 
waters that she had been engulfing, soaking 
in had spanked her out of the slick of sobriety 
onto another planet , one of high hilarity--   
when she strode about like a stand-up
comedian and gushed: where`s my pup? 
my mind has decided to disappear  
with my dear pup, it`s my sphere! 

when I weighed in on it with: real?
that means as we speak, it’s official  
that you`re mindless, or rather irrational,
she denied with: no, no, I just feel very free,
I added: makes sense, you’re sloshed or high!  


but she went on: it must be on vacation on another
planet, the fact of the matter is I don’t have another,  
I’m looking for it everywhere, and if you bump into it, bind
it or tell it: dear mind, mind your business, she`s solely sound, 
why buzz away from her with her pup? why?, or except if you find
joy in jostling her into a mindless queen, that`s mean and unsound!  

No Blues In Bluethoothing Fun And Feels   ​

​in his screwiest of stupors the sixty- year old,  
technology-savvy ,lazy ,dozy fooling fella
dreamed of an explosion of interest 
in bluetooth, then he had visions 
sending his beautiful burly bride
whose nest was in another city
the freshest of food & fun plus 
cute ,costly confectionaries 
and decorated dictionaries 
of fondness and fondles
via bluetooth!

Please No Games ​

​the creditor to the debtor
“please just honorably tell me
that you’re not ready and willing 
to pay up, so that I could savvy what
to do, I`m tired of your games and lies”
the debtor responded, “then sir, don’t play
those games, so that I could grasp what to do too”