Poem
Dambudzo Marechera
Oracle of the Povo
Oracle of the Povo
Oracle of the Povo
Her vision’s scrublandOf out-of-work heroes
Who yesterday a country won
And today poverty tasted
And some to the hills hurried their thirst
And others to arson and blasphemy
Waving down tourists and buses
Unleashing havoc no tongue can tell –
Her vision’s Droughtstricken acres
Of lean harried squatters
And fat pompous armed overlords
Touching to torch the makeshift shelters
Heading to magistrate and village court
The most vulnerable and hungry of citizens –
Her vision’s Drought Relief graintsrucks
Vanished into thin air between departure point
And expectant destination –
In despair she’s found in beerhalls
And shebeens, by the roadside
And in brothels: selling the last
Bits and pieces of her soured vision.
© 1992, Flora Veit Wild
From: Cemetery of Mind, Buddy’s Selected Poems
Publisher: Baobab Books, Harare
Note:
Povo is the term used by politicians in Zimbabwe to refer to the
common people, or the majority of the electorate.
From: Cemetery of Mind, Buddy’s Selected Poems
Publisher: Baobab Books, Harare
Poems
Poems of Dambudzo Marechera
Close
Oracle of the Povo
Her vision’s scrublandOf out-of-work heroes
Who yesterday a country won
And today poverty tasted
And some to the hills hurried their thirst
And others to arson and blasphemy
Waving down tourists and buses
Unleashing havoc no tongue can tell –
Her vision’s Droughtstricken acres
Of lean harried squatters
And fat pompous armed overlords
Touching to torch the makeshift shelters
Heading to magistrate and village court
The most vulnerable and hungry of citizens –
Her vision’s Drought Relief graintsrucks
Vanished into thin air between departure point
And expectant destination –
In despair she’s found in beerhalls
And shebeens, by the roadside
And in brothels: selling the last
Bits and pieces of her soured vision.
From: Cemetery of Mind, Buddy’s Selected Poems
Note:
Povo is the term used by politicians in Zimbabwe to refer to the
common people, or the majority of the electorate.
Oracle of the Povo
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