MSU law student pens touching poem on oppressed souls
By Nkosana Dlamini
@Zimbabwe_star
Midlands State University (MSU) law student Princess Nemapare has penned a poem which attempts to capture the deep emotion felt by the oppressed and suffering.
The poem is a touching lamentation by a family member who watches aghast a powerful male sibling squander the family wealth to the detriment of their aging mother’s health.
The 25-year-old fifth year student chose the conventional family scene to depict the national decay that has seen elected leaders repay citizens who voted them into office with a voracious plunder of national wealth and brutality.
Speaking to Zimstar News Saturday, Nemapare said she felt the dismay that her compatriots were feeling about the sorry status quo.
“A lot of people are not happy…our history is just drenched in unnecessary blood and chaos and it’s not right.
“I guess humans just have a talent to self-distract.”
Asked what she sought to achieve with the poem, the Gweru based student said, “for someone to remember that we are one, we belong to the same country, we speak the same language, we should be building each other and not tearing each other apart”.
Nemapare, who denies any political affiliation in the country, said she was “just a concerned citizen who really wants Zimbabwe to realise its true potential”.
An avid but casual author, Nemapare said she is yet to publish any of her works adding, “I simply write poetry and never publish…writing helps me think clearly and vent”.
My mother’s cry!
Can you hear the cries of my mother?
Her silent screams soo loud and deafening…
Can you not see the river of tears flowing on her cheeks?
The cold hard stare from her bloodshot eyes startles me!
It pains me to see her this way
Breaks my heart to feel the pain that courses through her veins.
A persistent pain of regrets and worry for her children’s happiness &
concern for their future.
It’s sad to see her like this, soo old and sooo sickly she can barely get out of bed these days
But how could you?
How could you brother?
How could you destroy our mothers’ legacy like that?
Without a single care in the world, you brought mother to her knees.
Caused deep rooted scars when you stole her wealth from her kitchen and sold it to the highest bidder
Please tell me brother,
Because I fail to understand how?
When we chose you to be the head of our family, we thought you loved us
We thought you would take care of us, just as mother did before;
We dreamed of swimming in the sweet bubbling brooks left to us by mother
We imagined you would share mother’s wealth equally amongst us,
To be at liberty to discuss with you how the family was to be managed: but however, it was a midsummer night’s dream…
See my mother was rich, my mother was healthy. Had the softest touch and most fertile of wombs
Her roots ran deep and covered the land with life
When she smiled, the trees & flowers grew in splendour,
Her laugh parted the mountains and made the stones sparkle
She was happy
But brother, your malice and greed poisoned her wells!
Her light dimmed when you chased away her sons and daughters out of her house
She stopped smiling when you broke our family in half and started your own
We suffer at your hands dear brother while you and your family live a lavish lifestyle using mother’s inheritance
We are Born from the same womb but yet you see me as an unwelcome stranger!
How is it so easy for you to hate and hurt your family?
Without any hesitation you broke the covenant we made to one another,
Are you not the one who vowed to take care of the family?
Did you not say that you would never leave us?
But now you lay in wait, crouched behind the bushes like a lioness on the hunt- machete in hand, committed and ready…
Ready to cut down your sister because she asked you for food,
To cut down your brother because he challenged your misrule
I see you are ready, ready to burn the house my mother built for us
The streets are awash with the blood of our kin, the blood of my mother’s children!
Can you not hear the screams of our mother??
Blood of my blood, you have truly changed!
Did we not love you enough?
Did mother not treat us equally?
You tore away from us,
Made us your enemy and declared war on our mother’s house!
Please help me understand,
Understand how my brother could loathe me so?
But perhaps there is no explanation,
perhaps this has always been who you are beneath the smile and unfulfilled promises,
Perhaps I refused to see your true colours, blinded by love I failed to see the void of darkness that was your heart!
And now you have broken mine
Mother Zimbabwe wails for her children
Can you not hear her screams? She calls for you!
She cries for you to stop, to stop killing her children
