The Echoes Of Montgomery Poem by Tapera Makadho

In the hush of dawn, Montgomery breathes anew,
A whisper in the wind, shadows passing through;
Silent footsteps echo on empty streets,
Carrying stories of those they once did meet —
Stories written not in ink,
But in the dust of all that was,
And all that refused to quit.

Beneath the dust, beneath scars and tears,
Lies a heartbeat that defies the years;
A pulse of hope in fractured soil,
A seed of change in midnight toil;
For the seed asks not permission
To break through stone,
It simply grows—
Because to grow
Is all it knows how to do.

The ghosts of art, the voices of song,
Linger in corners where they belong;
Not gone, but waiting in the wings,
For dawn when melody again sings;
When painters return to palettes,
When poets uncap their pens,
When musicians lift their instruments
From the silence where they've rested,
And play the song Montgomery's been humming
All these long and hollow years.

Montgomery, your bones are laid with grace,
But your soul still dances in empty space;
A whisper, a promise, a silent vow —
That you will rise again, here and now,
Not as the ghost of what you were,
But as the full, breathing body
Of what you are still becoming —
For a street that bears this much memory
Cannot remain a ruin forever.

The echoes of Montgomery travel far,
Beyond the asphalt, beyond each scar;
They cross the Limpopo and Zambezi,
Drift through hills of Masvingo,
Settling in hearts that never walked your pavements,
But know your name:
Because someone whispered it to them
In the dark,
And they never forgot.

For every city has its Montgomery—
Its street of lost magnificence,
Its corner of abandoned dreams,
Its painter who left unfinished,
Its poet who rode away on a slippery bend,
And took the color with him;
Every city carries its halo of dust,
Its dogs howling quietly in their hearts,
Its aesthetic duet—
Broken into a single, discordant note;
And every city waits,
As Montgomery waits,
For voices to return.

May your streets remember the fire's glow,
And your whispering voices continue to grow;
For from the ashes, new dreams will ascend;
Montgomery's spirit unbroken, unbent,
Rising through dust, shrapnel, scars,
Past impious stars and quiet jars;
Rising through silence of discordant notes,
Until the aesthetic duet —
Clears its throat and sings again;
Montgomery. Montgomery. Montgomery.