Other Banks - Fatma Krouma

I love you more in temperate climates
away from the killing sun
and the long and boring Sundays.

The meaning of the Circus - Tène Youssouf Gueye

Distant carillons  of the Great Copper Clock
veiled echoes of bugles and the song of crowds (choir of
great communal feasts, syncopated applause descending
into the depths along green abysses)
we climb back up the dreams to the blue height of stars
all the way to the sonorous circus tiers
resplendent in light.

Drowning - Tsebo Makakole

Scared and frustrated,
Ke tšohile batsoali,¹
What are they going to say,
When I tell them?
My wallet all wet,
Containing my money
And my bank account cards.

Not My Business - Niyi Osundare

They picked Akanni up one morning
Beat him soft like clay
And stuffed him down the belly
Of a waiting jeep.

Two Strangers - Beverley Nambozo Nsengiyunva

One Sunday in December,
Two strangers met in church.
The Pastor talked about Salvation
and hope.
Then he told the church to join hands
And pray.
Rwabambarussshii shpirit, Jeshushhhhhh

corner pritchard - Siza Nkosi

corner pritchard
has a salon not wider
than the backroom of a house
in mzimhlophe

People in tall buildings - Rethabile Masilo

You see those people in the tall buildings, at their windows,
looking at a sky between whose seams a swallow with her beak
sews patches of blue into place?

The Rank - Thato Angela Chuma

The city pours itself here;
within the damp smell of roasting maize,
sweat,
and the snores of taxis and combis
travelling on half-dressed roads.

Stank with Sweat - Nana Nyarko Boateng

The brave face
I wear is never washed
It stinks with sweat
my mother’s and mine

the inferior - Nanche Billa Robert

we bounced out of the egg
in a minuscule zone
                              worth
                                             wealth
                                                             in a miniature of Africa

Pay attention when it comes - Caroline Anande Uliwa

In the ring of romantic love
There’s a new language
Symbolism with great vantage

In two ways have I loved Thee - Rabi’a of Basri

In two ways have I loved Thee: selfishly,
And with a love that worthy is of Thee.

Lines on Wood - Limam Boicha

As I listened to that old and beautiful song
its fine words were baptised by the flames
igniting the bonfire of this poem

Kaidara (excerpt) - Amadou Hampâté Bâ

When the Great Forger of the skies reached his forge,
he plied his bellows till the forge came alight.

More rich taints yer! - Mamoudou Lamine Kane

At Nouakchott’s reddened intersections,
Baseless arrogance behind each wheel
Pouring down pot-holed roads
Towards who knows what hazy occupations.

O ignee Spiritus / Hymn to the Holy Spirit - Hildegard of Bingen

Praise to you
Spirit of fire!
to you who sound the timbrel
and the lyre.

Debtors’ Lane (with Drums & Ogene) - Christopher Okigbo

A & B: This is debtors’ lane, this is
the new haven, where wrinkled faces
watch the wall clock strike each hour
in a dry cellar.

Hashtag - Davina Philomena Kawuma

Headphones edged with brio,
bulging over skirted sofas.
Sport is the new sex.

Run, Heart, Run - Efemia Chela

I exercise this muscle in my chest
with bad love, fake affection.

Civilian and Soldier - Wole Soyinka

My apparition rose from the fall of lead,
Declared, 'I am a civilian.' It only served
To aggravate your fright. For how could I
Have risen, a being of this world, in that hour
Of impartial death! And I thought also: nor is
Your quarrel of this world.

Departure - Chaman Lall

I
This wind sighing recalls certain things.
I warned you:
Beware of it:
Passion has wings;

But who’s the one to bell the cat? - Eustache Deschamps

Among the mice, so runs the tale,
a brilliant convocation sat
against their enemy the cat

Where I Wander - Levi Yitzchak

Where I wander – you!
Where I ponder – You!
Only You, You again, always You!

Question - Marie Under

We saw those berries, over-ripe and glowing,
in weak and tepid light of the October sun
persisting red as blood, in right full-growing,
without much inkling of the winter clouds to come.

The Joy of Life - Metrodorus

Hold every path of life.
In the market-place are honours and prudent dealings,
in the house rest;

We are Brothers - Mugurditch Beshiktashlian

From glorious Nature’s myriad tongues
Though songs be breathed by lips of love,
And though the maiden’s fingers fair
Across the thrilling harp-strings rove,
Of all earth’s sounds, there is no other
So lovely as the name of brother.

the Prudish Parent - Sylvanus Barnes

And so it came—
The fateful day, the dreaded moment
Which no shrinking parent can postpone.

Adhiambo - Gabriel Okara

I hear many voices
like it's said a madman hears;
I hear trees talking
like it's said a medicine man hears.