Voices

I Hear voices,
I hear the silenced voices of the people of my land,
I hear voices of anger, disappointment, dissent, disapproval…
I hear voices of the starving children of the motherland, and tears come to my eyes;
My heart bleeds for the women that gave birth to them, only to watch them slowly die;
I cry for the men of this land,
As I hear their voices screaming silently in the middle of the night;
Muffled…Deadened... Dying….
I hear voices,
I hear the voices of the young men of this land;
As they labour away in the dirt holes of the world;
Breaking their backs in the service of foreign lands;
I hear the voices of my sisters;
Proud daughters of the soul;
Disillusioned; prostituting their bodies and their souls all over the world;
Ugly flotsam in the confusion of the tyranny of this land,
Their hard earned education gone to waste;
Unused... Unutilised… wasted...

I listen to the voices..;
Everlasting hope and on-going despair,
Long forgotten joys and present anguish,
Apathy and talk of revolution,
Peace and war…

I hear voices.., and sometimes...
Sometimes, I cannot help but wonder,
If the voices I hear are inside my head; and if they are not;
Does anybody else hear them...?
Does the world hear them...?
Can you hear the voices…?
Can you…..

First published in the collection, Mureza, 2007.

Tell Me No More

Tell me no more;
No more stories of your anger and pain,
For I have had enough,
Enough of your endless mourning,
Of your tales of crushed hopes and your endless anguish,
Of your days of terror and your nights of hunger;
Tell me no more, for I have heard it all before;
And no matter how much we spoke about it,
Nothing changed...
We watched as our motherland was violently raped,
Our daughters deflowered by the tyrant's thugs, and
Our sons die with hunger, and our fathers wilt with shame;
And still nothing happened,
We talked about it,
Long into the night,
How wrong it was,
How we should do something about it, how a change must surely come, someday;
We talked about it,
Long into the night,
And still nothing happened..
I do not want to hear anymore;
Your sons have packed up and gone, your daughters take no heed of you,
I will not listen anymore,
So please tell me no more;
No more of this revolutionary nonsense,
For it will get more of our people killed;
No more of this fighting spirit talk,
For it will lead our children into prison,
I do not want to hear it,
So tell me no more...
In my mind, I will always be free,
My daughters will always be pure, and my sons will be men;
And the flame of freedom will burn forever in a little corner of my heart;
So, go on;
Sing your songs of war somewhere else,
Let me be,
Leave me alone,
I do not want to hear anymore;
So; please, tell me no more…-

First published in the collection, Mureza, 2007.

ISBN : 978-0-620-39711-7

"Mureza is a brutal, yet searingly honest look inside the mind and heart of an ordinary Zimbabwean today; be it the guilt-ridden economic refugee slaving away in some dirty job in a corner of the world somewhere, the Shebeen Queen battling with the morality of the way she has to earn her living, or the sweating priest of the local 'vapostori' church, dancing the night away in the religious dances of desperation…

It is the voice of the bleeding heart of a broken nation, a once proud people reduced to scavenging the conference halls of the Diaspora, desperately begging for the world's attention, sympathy and understanding; and yet somewhere in the poems, the reader can still hear the silent voices of hope, determination, tenacity and promises of another day…."

Originally, published by Trinity Press in the United Kingdom, and in South Africa by Clearvue Publishing, this collection of heart wrenching poems comes from a Zimbabwean poet who is likely to come into the industry with a bang, and is here to stay…

Retailing at £ 10.00 or R100.00

The Book was launched 31 October 2007, available from Clearvue Publishing Tel: 002712 392 1014 \ 002772 730 1967

Email:Clearvue Pub.

EMAIL:Trinity Press

Thamsanqa Ncube was born in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, where he attended school at Luveve as well as Founders High Schools. After completing his Accounting Management Studies at the Bulawayo Polytechnic College, Mr. Ncube immigrated to South Africa, where he lectured in Business studies at various colleges, before opening his own Business Training College, which he successfully managed for 3 years. Mr. Ncube became involved in the political movements based in South Africa, trying to solve the deteriorating situation in Zimbabwe. As the regime became bolder and sought to crush any opposition at home and in neighboring countries, Mr. Ncube moved `to the United Kingdom, where he resided for 5 years. He is now back in South Africa, and lives in Pretoria with his wife and son. These poems are extracted from Mr Ncube's published collection Mureza…In the Shadow of the Flag.

Email: Thamsanqa Ncube

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