NOWHERE TO HIDE

Like a desert wind

Sweeping footprints

Of yesterday tears

And like midsummer drizzle

Teasing the blushing sun

That is my love for you.

Like a moth to a candle

Rainbow coloured dreams

Wing in the broad smiles

Of our times,together

Where ever you go

I will be with you

Like an obedient shadow

And I wrap myself round you

Like a halo round the moon.

Where ever you are

I am that aura you radiate

The scent of your perfume

You wear everyday

I am those sneezes, groans

        and snores

You make everyday

Like a butterfly

In the Collector's Bottle

You are in my hold.

No matter how you run

There is just no escape

Where ever you are

Where ever you go

No matter how you try

There is just no hiding place

From my love,

                      its so real.

        -dougwa-

ROAD TO YOUR HEART

A long 

and winding umbilical cord

That melts into the distant

Disturbing

sparkling fantasy of a mirage.

A snaking dusty trail hemmed

With rosemaries, pansies,

fennels and violets

Fading like a refrain of a lullaby.

A sad mourning song

Of a windy August night

Voices of homeless times

Joys

and tears waiting to be discovered.

Dancing

images of light and shade

Merging heart-shaped silhouttes

Against the glow of hope and fate

Frail dreams

walking on a dusty trail.

Sometimes I struggle alone

Toil, grope, fall and

cry alone

When you fail to understand

me.

And I trudge on

in the windy night

Toward the holy grail, heaven's ecstacy

To voices in the dark

calling my name.

         -dougwa-

GOOSE CHASE

I have been drinking wine

To douse the burning tip of my mind

Worries chewing at my nerves

Like the filter end of a rich Havana cigar

Woes of this world turn my whiskers

Into drab willows of misery

My nights into endless nightmares

And my thoughts rattling and jarring

Like the business end of a mechanical hammer.

Dreams clad in limp loincloth

Revisit me from the dark

Urns of history

The salad days of our beings

And their neauseating euphoria

When in drunken trance we siezed

Conscience by her arms

And threw her on her back

Splayed her legs

And smacked our lips

As blood spurt out...

I wipe my mind with the back of my hand

Trying

To brush away the dregs of the sordid rituals

We once enshrined.

A plump shiny green bottle

Buzzes around my mind irritating

Reminding me of Death

Hanging mockingly

Like a pendulum over my mind seducing

''O Sweet Carrion

You are food for the elders!''

And my sins in their hordes shimmer

A deathly pale round the nooze

Suspended from blushing heaven's bottom

My mind's eyes shed crystal tears

Giving away bucketfuls of Chiyadzwa diamonds to regain

Long gone and lost innocence.

I shared a bottle of wine

With my new-found friend, Today

Clinking glasses and minds

Then a green bottle in full flight

Was caught between the grinding bellies

Of our glasses and minds

Bloodied fleshrot bespattered our intelligence

And our minds rushed to the wash basins retching

A brush with the fetid breath of the past

Left the gums of my mind barren and obscene

And together with newfound friend, Today

We covered our private parts with our hands

Ashamed

At the nudity of our thoughts.

She knocked at the door of my mind

Eyes shadowed in wet grey paint

Lips smudged in scarlet smiled at me

A Good Morning

My palm hiding the discoloured teeth

Of my inner-self

I muffled a Good Mourning to her, but

I felt a warmth spreading

At the base of my belly

Her milky-white mouthful was inviting

A milkyway blaze trailing into deep future

''I will flirt with her'' my mind whispered

But then the rasping sandpaper touch of her lips

Bruised and bloodied my thoughts

And I saw red at the future.

I must have swooned

From the First Lady's fistkisses of philanthropy

Doling out sweet nothings and promises

At a ceremony sheathed in royal pomp and dignity

Where the guests dressed like Harlequins

Mesmerised us with the crablike dance

And flummoxed O poor we

With democratic mumbo-jumbo and lingo

And the Povo touched with feeling

Donated oceanfuls of diamond tears

And their sincere prayers a mutter flutter

Into the heavens for beloved leaders.

I broke Biltong , my past, into the pot

To give life to ailing friend, Today

With my fingernail I peeled off

The tomatoe's tough ruddy jacket

To make sauce

And I heard a rumble of objection

From the August House

And the Mujibhas and Chimbwidos' angry yawn

Gave a chilli spice to the dish

And the food touching Today 's lips

He sneezed and broke wind

Startling ghosts of old nostalgic memories

That had took seats at the kitchen table

To wing away to the scrapyard

Their home beyond the rusting horizon.

Perched on the anthill of anticipation

I roll my thoughts

Into a big joint of mbanje

I suck and grey fading puffs

Of wishes spiral into the bored sky

Each a crippled dream

That was bulldozed at Churu Farm

An ambitious dream that was displaced

By the Operation Murambatsvina

A dream that lost an eye and limb in the food riots

A dream that lost its balls at university

A dream that fell from the 11th floor at the Towers

Into the Taxman's hat

A dream that drowned in the opaque beer tank

At the Uhuru celebrations

A dream that lost its breath

On top of another man's wife in Mbare

A dream dumped and disowned

Only to find home at the bottom of the Blair toilet...

To find home in the sympathetic clicks

Of poets who have lost their voices.

The stub is burning my fingers

Minds run out of fuel and fire

The angry verbal lash

Of the emotionally wounded

Is a stub licking back at the wielder

To be snuffed out and discarded

On the ash tray of hopelessness

The grave yard that houses all

Once active minds.

-dougwa-

THE HARD MASHONA

With blistered determination
We cling to the life-giving hoe
Bending double on wobbling hope
We scrap on the bored earth
Begging for a mouthful.
A gift bestowed upon us
Like King Solomon with many wives
To multiply and fill the world
Is to fill the world with smiles and flowers
The rainbow family
The best out of the worst
The blest to school the rest.
Like a stamp and a letter
We stick together
Bleating and bleeding together
Looking in the eyes of the foe
We sit huddled round the dying fire
The embers bequeathed from our past -
The spirits in the wind chanting songs
Of love and peace.
Our eyes have gone numb
Gawking and hawking without cease
The sullen skies of old hope
That invisible palm outstretching
From the melting clouds of distress
''O ye get this vital itaal''
Mannah from your sleepy gods(dogs?)
The pendulum knocks
Against the walls of our minds
Reminding us of our covenant
With the gods of belief
To live our lives as an explanation
The story of the plaintive shadows
From the land of black and white rainbows
And rusting sunrises and sunsets.
Look into the splintered mirror
And you see the dream
A frosty webbed apparition
On the misted glass
Disbelief?
Then scrap on the dirty lozenge
On your underwear and sniff!
Till death do us party
We will always declare our presence
Beaten on one cheek
Donate another cheek
Once beaten twice shine
Do not let your bitterness glow by night
For one day for all this
Toiling and drowning in sweat and blood
Someone will pay.

-dougwa-

the hard mashona is an indigenous cattle breed very resistant to severe drought conditions. it is amazing how this breed survives in most cruel times & i have told myself that hard times never kill, in fact they leave you much stronger.

MEAT ME THERE

How do you want me

MR GOVERNMENT?

Roasted, grilled or stewed

With mustard, salt and pepper

to taste...

How do you want me?

Plain or with some dressing

May be drowned in sauce

May be downed with red wine

Just smack your lips

You are going to meat me there.

What wrong have I done this time?

Being a Squatter, Vagrant, Streetkid!

A beggar in the land of plenty

Yes, we have plenty misery

Suffering there...

The guns bark their chorus

And muffle the wail of the hungry and weak

As the law pins me against the wall...

Law the watchdog for the powerful

That chants its mumbo-jumbo

Against the poor...

I hear the loud voice of the gun

You are going to meat me there...

There, I am wanted

For tax evasion when I am not employed

For asking the meagre returns

Of my sweat and blood

For demanding back my poetry

They stole from the archives of my heart...

Yesterday I was arrested

For riding my master's mistress in a dream

Today I am dragged before a Judge of Law

For being found with maliciously true poetry

In my heart...

Tomorrow they will charge me

For singing a song

They will claim to have composed long ago

In their hearts...

I stand accused.

You turn me into a bull's eye

For your mahobhos

I am booted and teargassed

I have my back stuck to the wall

And the fingers curl on the triggers...

Too, too many fingers employed for the trigger

For sure they want to meat me

....there!

-dougwa-

HOPE SWEET HOME

The rain splutters at me in foreign tongue 

As my mind hurdles under a mushroom 

Shelter from the pelting lashes 

Of nostalgic memory 

Such vulnerable home from woes 

Like a rodent hole in flooding summer 

They tell me I am a finicky rat 

That will not survive outside Sakubva 

Ratatat-tatatatat-tart! 

Oh but how true! 

Each day I walk out in the morning 

Come evening I pick every footprint I left 

Back home 

Prompted by need to use my footprints 

Once more 

Take care! 

The radio blares 

Save save save save 

The television frowns 

Wise up 

Recycle is the trick in these hard times 

Discarded beliefs, discarded memories, discarded tastes 

Can be recycled 

Recycled dreams, recycled husband, recycled wife... 

I scrap my bottom in amazement 

After all there is always a grain of virtue left 

In what we discard - 

O how I love the scent 

God has made it that way 

That each time you shit 

Before you go 

You save a nostalgic glance at your shit 

Suppressing a sense of loss 

For a part of you left behind 

Like kites tied to strings we are 

We regale in our false splendour 

At time's mercy 

The fruits of mental masturbation 

Deflowered by new virgin worlds 

Of lewd dreams in striking G-Strings 

Gyrating loins of fantastic insanity 

That lure us 

Into the heavy -bosomed clouds 

Pregnant with cultural retribution 

For the anarchy coursing our veins 

Like the burning pain on my back 

Each evening when I bend double 

To pick up and bag my footprints 

I left in the morning 

This is not madness 

When I tell you to let your beak 

Of tolerance peck and peck 

On your S-H-I-T... 

What difference is there 

Between shit in your belly and 

Shit steaming betwixt your legs? 

What difference is home 

When you are young and when old? 

Riding on the back of butterfly dreams 

When I am a newborn macho 

In the bullring of entrepreneurship 

Or O such cosmopolitan hunk 

In the realm of fashion and modelling... 

Sounds like sheltering under a mushroom 

That springs and dazzles but a day 

Hope I will hurtle back 

Hope sweet home, home sweet home 

I am a finical rat 

That won't live away from home. 

-dougwa-

MY HEART IS NO SQUATTER CAMP

You may look me in the eye
And see a self-satisfied, shallowest fool
You may hold my gaze
And behold a town -made cliche
An ordinary talk about the weather
Or the horror of galloping food prices
Your eyes may drill at me
Holy Shit! Soddom and Gomorrah
Sulphurous flames sparkle in your eyes
You may freeze in liquid terror
And weep for mercy -
Emancipation from the thraldom
Of your tyrant - my love for you!

You may look at me like that
But you are wrong I am sure
My heart is no tramp
That stopped over for the night
My heart is not a stranger
Who stops to warm his hands at the fire

Does my heart look frail
Does my heart look like a tramp-camp
A community that ekes sordid life
Of lame and crippled dreams
Burst arteries of patience
And contaminated intelligence

Does my heart look like a cold heath
With no fire
And do you feel your heart is
Spreading its hands on an imaginary fire
For warmth and contentment
Is my love some dirty underwear
You are impatient to hide
Do I sniff shit like the streetkids
Sniff glue?

I am no tramp whose dreams
Sleep in a suitcase
The chalice of my heart
Is brimming with love, the fire is burning
I need you to sit with me
On the heathrug of hot love
What ever they may say or do
Iwill not change my ways
My heart is no squatter camp
Come home to love and comfort.

           -dougwa-

WHERE TO?

We smack our lips
And tap our feet
We rub our hands
And nod our heads

We share a smile
And lend each other faith
We do not spare our lips
And enjoy nature's fruit

We get our thirsts quenched
Our bellies filled
Our wounds salved
And emotions bathed in sweat

A fart escapes
From 'twixt tangled limbs
A groan escapes
From our captive lips...

In shudder in ecstacy
We go rigid in fluid devotion
And revulse in naked truth
That we have done
The forbidden act
But what's next?

Each passing moment
We splay nature's legs
And prostitute her
We draw from her lifeblood
But for how long
Are we going to suck her dry
And kill the divine innocence
Where are we heading?
Whore are we heading!

         -dougwa-

AS LONG AS YOU LOVE

You are a dove in my hand

And I will let you fly out

If you promise to come back

You are a kite in my hand

I will lend you rope

To rise higher only if you vow

To whisper prayers to the wind

And let a feather flutter to me

And tug the string for assurance

You are the reason girl

For those sleepless nights

So where ever you are promise

To take care for my sake

And know you are the seasons

The summer and winter in my life

These hands will fight for you

Give life to your dreams

You build in soft panting sighs

This mouth will keep moist

The memories of our most erotic kisses

And will stand for you on Judgment Day

As long as you love me

Nothing can really separate us

I will hear your sighs miles away

As long as you want me

We can be together in dreams

Just close your eyes tight and I come

I know you are a dove in my hand

And I will let you fly if you promise

To whisper prayers to the wind.

-dougwa-

LEAVE NO SIGN

I enter this world

Sheathed in protective latex condom

I will lie with this world

All night long,

night after night

But will leave no foot-prints

Of my intimate visits to this world.

Who am I to leave

My footprints at the beach

Who am I to leave

Rose -tattooed memories

in their hearts...

Love -bruised  lips

On this whoring world...

I will remain in the shadow

Of the sun, the moon and the stars

I will hide in the shadows

Of the lewd dreams

with this world

Like shadows slithering

On wet walls of reality

I will remain ghosts

Pinned

to the cross of truth

By the nail of imagination...

I leave no signs

Even in most lurid imaginations.

Squirt your seed

into the lips

Of this world and she grows

big

With child

that resembles you

Many have done it...

The world we cradle in our arms

Resembles them

crystal clear

I will not leave any sign.

             -dougwa-

I SEE YOU MOURN

I see the rigours of time 

Etched on your sulky face 

Though the sun's fingers caress 

The brow of your ambitions 

Nostalgia tinkles solemn bells 

Of dreams maimed and cobwebbed 

By time's blunt knife 

I see you mourn 

Life is molten wax that congeals 

With a caress of the air 

Life is a wagon swaggering downhill 

A liberating spasms 

Of wee wet dreams... 

I see you mourn 

I see your determination thawing 

Like white icicles on winter window pane 

I see your patience wane in pain 

Like dry cakes of mud in the African sun 

I see your conscience rot and ooze 

Black brackish slimy rot 

Tomorrow they will declare you 

A disaster no-go-area zone 

I see you mourn 

Emotions thunder, tempers glow 

And voice a shrill mingle with unknown 

Raucous whispers of the gods of doom 

This world has been terribly nice to you 

I see you whimper like a miserable dog 

That has lost its tail 

Brother you have lost your tale 

I see you mourn. 

-dougwa-

LOVE'S BITTER SHEARS

When I flare my nostrils 

I sneeze cordite? 

When I pout my big lips 

Does hot magma erupt? 

When my gored orbs roll 

Behold liquid blitz come 

to judgment? 

Fingered nerves claw 

At the fragile fabric of sanity 

Kamikaze dreams make horrendous 

Enterprise at vanishing sunbeam 

Clamourous amorous wishes 

Purr vapours of invisible kisses 

With the gods of fantasy 

Clawing up the dark wall of hope 

Plastered with ancient ivy of determination 

To live and kiss another day 

And weave another gooey dream 

Or to live another flirtation 

With a phantom lover? 

Stainless steel roses 

For my garden (please!) 

For roses are painted red 

By blood from wounded dreams 

And dust puffed from rusting trust 

Because life has been unfaithful 

Snogging and shagging with another 

LOVER! In my bed. 

I have nourished mine love tree 

With tears from swollen eyes of hope 

And urine from fat bladder of determination 

Red blood from amputated limbs 

Of self-sacrifice and selflessness 

I have tried. 

Undress your mind and jump into bed 

My mind often has balled fists against a woe 

Than has it kissed many a whore 

Blasted Judas! you are the foe 

You took away her innocence 

There is no red stain on the white linen 

Only red lipstick on my pillow 

And chewing gum in my hair... 

My mind still swoons 

To be deflowered 

Undress my mind. 

   -dougwa-