What Did The Wise Say? Poem by Tafadzwa Chiwanza

A taciturn old man in a kuffi hat
With eyes fixed on his burning cigar
Ignores the melancholic woman
Whose hand fiddles the rim of her cup
As if she knows not where the beer ought to go.
Her haggard eyes wonder to the door
And rest upon the keyhole for a while
Gazing at it like how one would stare
At the key that shuts the door to tomorrow
And opens the door to the past.
The old man puffs away at his cigar
Admiring the smoke, as it vanishes
And bellows a mighty laugh-
Before young tears rolled on his face:
He was neither happy nor sad. He was alive.
The woman wrapped in her thoughts;
Opened the door a million times in her mind
Praying to be there but hoping to be here;
She muttered something below her breath;
She was neither alive nor dead. She was just there.
Before the beer in her cup got warm,
The old man gave the woman advice;
He placed his hand upon her shoulder;
Stared into her lost eyes with wisdom And said;
NOTHING!