From exile - Mvula Ya Nangolo

From exile when I return

I'm going to beg someone to touch me

Very, very tenderly

And gradually put me et ease

I wish to feel again how life feels

I've not been home for many, many years

For many years I've been out of sight

For many years I've not been touched

And I've learnt to be homesick here in exile

Where life is not so bright

I've not been touched so tenderly

I've been searched by bullets

Going through my camouflage

And leaving my heart so fresh

I wish to feel again how life feels

From exile when I return

I'm going to beg someone

To introduce the newly born babies

Help me identify those grown-ups

And lead me to the cemetery

Where friends and playmates have long gone

From exile when I return

I'm going to beg someone

to understand my silence 

the letter that didn’t arrive

about our clan and tribe

for now I only belong

to my country and nation

still I wish to be touched tenderly

by hand and atmosphere

of people in a peaceful sphere.

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Mvula Ya Nangolo (1943 - 2019) Namibia

Source: mybeautifulthings