Friday, October 15, 2010

Democracy

Democracy is a fair

and free election

With the winner taking all

and loser taking nothing

Democracy is

The man who loses elections

and refuses to vacate the throne

Democracy is

The duty roster of ruling a country

Democracy is

The process of admitting

that you are another man’s fool

There is democracy everywhere

No one need define it for anyone

Father’s boss gives father hard work

and less pay

Father comes home to beat mother

for serving sadza without the meat he never bought

Mother beats child for looking at her cry

Child hits dog for blocking way

Dog bites the passing thug

for not killing father from the bar

This is democracy

Shared pain

Democracy is freedom of speech

But no after speech

Democracy is

calling your president a dictator

Democracy is

white man saying he owns land on African soil

Democracy is

the African thug killing a white man in Europe

Democracy is

you learning kungfu shouting “k’i-a”

When the Chinese Ambassador speaks through an interpreter

Democracy is

selling diamonds by a license from a country without them

Democracy is

having opposition parties

Calling ruling parties useless and old

Democracy is

the method of dividing and ruling fools

Democracy is

you pointing a finger at me and say “Mkwerekwere”

Democracy is

the government hanging a killer

Letting the army live after shooting hundreds in diamonds fields

I don’t need a lecture on democracy

I know democracy

I know death-

I know suffering-

I know pain-

-So, I know democracy-

A Poetic Crusade


Poetry is not the art of silence. . .

but it can encompass quiet. . . .

meditation. . . .

the moments when we

attend to breath or thought without speaking
disharmony is only one end of its spectrum. . .

there are spaces between words

Politics is not an art. . .

but politicians do exercise craft. . .

their media include words. . . .

But also wool. . .

white noise. . . .and wars. they cough . . . .

We’ve forgotten the sound of our own voices

Personal lives are our proper domain we’re told. . . .

So explain to me where they lie. . . .

What spaces are private when our rulers use their power to
control our bedrooms and bodies . . . .?

To clamp down our lips on every word of potential dissent


People. . . .

We must all become poets
each of us must cultivate the difficult art

of articulating personal lives in political terms. . . .

We must create words that drown out the noise of political violence

Poetry must excavate a space for the silence that is evidence of peace