How Many Times Have I Loved You? Poem by Thabani Khumalo

I m not at all angry,
I simply have a lot of worry showing in my eyes.
You try by every effort to break my heart,
you say that I have disappointed you beyond any level of trust...
I have completely disappointed you on one incident.

That has pressured you into such furious anger
that around my body you throw fits of murderous temper,
but for the illustrious beauty -
the beauty that you are on every hour of day and of night,
how many times have I completely loved you?
Count how many times I have come to you with a lurid smile.

Meditation upon hatred,
now that is the worst fallacy by rate of value.
Yet you haven't figured it out!
Yet I dream of you coming back into the royal palace,
all the way down here to me.

As the man of their dreams moved so did they move.
They moved behind and followed him.
They knew they couldn't get into life except through his poetic dream.
His every word was to be taken into account to be adored.

Thabani the second son of Sithembiso Buthakathaka...
of Fikizolo... of Madloli...
of Lophila... of Mzilikazi...
of Matshobana... of Mangethe...
of Langa who didn't belong in any bloodline.
They packed all their blankets into their bags
and followed him through life in their best shoes.

He got them all to rest and redress from the tiresome life of lies.
He recited all the names of his majestic fathers to a mountain and it moved.
Little did they understand that he was leading them in the write direction -
in the land of honey and milk in everlasting life;

Just him and his best friends,
out there living a fulfilling life.
UThabani kaMthobo.
Ucezwana olungcwele lwenyanga yasezulwini.
UmntakaKhumalo, belahla zonke izifo zabo...
besuka bemlandela.