Venice masks

Thursday 15 October 2020

Letter to my Unborn Child - Batsirai E. Chigama

Child
When I get the courage
When I am ready and brave
To bring you in a world
With too many clenched fists
Too many open palms
Too many potholes
And Z.E.S.Aless nights
Too many frolicking leaders
I want to make sure
You are strong and ready
For the furrowed ride
I will keep you safe for now
Wrapped in my scared womb
Only when I am ready
Will I birth you freely
Like the way this poetry flows from my tongue

When you get here
I mean if you get here
I imagine the joy of your small
Cute smiles and
Your tiny hands curling
Into little adorable fists
Incapable of hurting no one
Then slowly opening like
The petals of a beautiful rose
I imagine in your sleep
You will dream of happy things
And i will watch you stretch
Your tiny limbs
Saying ‘when I grow up I wanna be…
better than mummy’
but child you are not to say that out loud
especially with me around
Like the words flowing from my tongue
You will wear many names of your choice
For I want to give you that freedom from birth
With the easiness of a happy child’s laughter
To make your own choices beginning with your name
Without me breathing down my failed dreams
On you

Child
I want you to be proud in your skin
So comfortable no one can convince you otherwise
Be weary of brain-pickers i would say
Those who will pick on your brains with shamboks
Like they did on the backs of grandma
In the cotton plantations
Just like your daddy
You will be gifted with brawn
But child that does not mean you are to be a slave
And when you are old like these locks
Tying my world together, at 8
I want your world to be open
To limitless possibility
I want you to be brave
Just like me when I brought you into this world
To labour for your own happiness
To strive to cut the fences, prejudices
Around the skin you will unashamedly be proud of
Child I seek you to find
All-weather wings
A heart as warm
I want you to find love
Give love
And above all, I want you to be you
But for now

I will keep you safe for now
Wrapped in my scared womb
Safe from the stale promise of democracy
Safe from hate propaganda
pelting my ears from the radio relentlessly
Safe from circus governments of disunity
pawning our rights & freedoms
like zhing-zhong products at the flea market
Only when I am ready
Only when I am ready child
Will I birth you freely
Like the way this poetry flows from my tongue

Batsirai E. Chigama (born 1977) Zimbabwe
  • Z.E.S.A. - Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority
  • shambok - horsewhip

No comments:

Post a Comment

Please keep your comments relevant and free from abusive language. Thank you. Note that comments are moderated so it may be a day or two before your comment is posted - irrelevant or abusive comments will not be published.