Poetry Corner

Reaction

You shall change
A complete change
A revolution of the soul
Tethering every human fibres
A birth that knows no metamorphosis
You shall change.

You shall phase out your current stance and change
Poked you shall sneeze
Choked you shall cough
Tossed your hair shall rise
Overworked you shall sweat
Pinched you shall hiss.

Your shall harden your soft stance
And radicalise your compromising heart
Mocked you shall rebuff
Kicked you shall dodge
Punched you shall block
Licked you shall bite!

You shall riddle your Spirit
And you shall become a thrill
Debated you shall not talk but fight
Discriminated racially you shall excommunicate perpetrators
Oppressed within the work force you shall demand a reduction in profits and an increment on your salary
Retrenched without benefits you shall loot and sell their assets
Arrogant leaders you shall force out of office.

You shall be neophilic
Overtaxed you shall demand reduction in the salaries of the ministers
Swindled you shall freeze the foreign assets and accounts
Robbed of your tender you shall vandalise
Managed by the numbskull who is the leader’s namesake you will not accord him authority
Infuriated by the country’s security men you shall give them their job description
You shall remind them why they went to war and their philosophies.

You shall react
And refuse to be ruled
And diffuse to be led
You shall not leave liars playing with your precious authority
You shall demand to know mysterious deaths and disappearances
You shall not listen to lectures on the war when there is open mismanagement
You shall not return slogans when your freedom fighters are not given hero status
You shall not leave a party organ manipulating the history of your society.

Never again shall you allow iron rule in your country
Dictators are not natural but are man made
By our patience that they mistaken for leniency
Never again shall we tremble under internal fear
Of the secret police
We will from now on stand up
And shout out our minds
Reminding the leaders
That we did not go to war
To promote one family
If they fail to give us a berth
We can not give them a rebirth!

JULIUS SAI MUTYAMBIZI-DEWA