Poem

Tsitsi Jaji

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MATOBO HILLS

MATOBO HILLS

MATOBO HILLS

Here lie the remains of Cecil John Rhodes, Colossus.
Land-locked, rock-clad in dolomite, as he willed it.
Cairo would not have him; he would not have the Cape.

Here Rhodes lies, dead as diamonds.
No one digs him up. No one salutes, Bayete.
The view is wasted on him.

© 2015, Tsitsi Jaji

Tsitsi Jaji

Tsitsi Jaji

(Zimbabwe, 1976)

Tsitsi Jaji was born at Nyadire Mission and raised in Harare. After completing her A-levels on a scholarship at Arundel, she moved to the U.S. to study piano and literature at Oberlin College. She earned a Ph.D. in comparative literature from Cornell University.

Many of her poems are inspired by music and the experience of living in the diaspora. Jaji’s collection, Beating the Graves, was publ...

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Poems of Tsitsi Jaji

PIERROT

SONG OF YOBE

OUR EMBRACE

DUST TO DUST

HOW I WRITE

PRÉAMBULE

HOLY DEPARTURE

DEEP ENGLISH

O
TORTOISE

MATOBO HILLS

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MATOBO HILLS

Here lie the remains of Cecil John Rhodes, Colossus.
Land-locked, rock-clad in dolomite, as he willed it.
Cairo would not have him; he would not have the Cape.

Here Rhodes lies, dead as diamonds.
No one digs him up. No one salutes, Bayete.
The view is wasted on him.

MATOBO HILLS

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