Charles Mungoshi Poems

Intense blue morning
promising early heat
and later in the afternoon,
heavy rain.
...

Dotito is our brother
He is strange
He will not play with us on the streets.
...

The torrid silence of the October sun.
Miles upon miles and miles of burnt-out plains.


Suddenly you realise
you are talking loudly to your
shadow.
...

You, talking to my mother
and sisters in the house.
Outside, my father and I
...

Now the pumpkin is ripe.
We are only a few days
from the year's first mealie cob.
The cows are giving us lots of milk.
...

This little boy wants me to give him
something his rich parents cannot give him.
He stands outside my door
...

This is the fifth warning
I won't speak to you again
I don't want to look through your kitchen
...

Poised on the thin edge of now
like a poleaxed tightrope walker
...

Sitting on the balcony
fingering a beer
I have bought
without any intention to drink:
...

And with the night
come my unfailing companions
the wind and the rain:
...