BROKEN DREAMS | The Lamentations of a Zimbabwean son whose life was cruelly snatched during the South African Xenophobic attacks

 

By Ruth Mutana 

One of my deepest wishes,

 Was to close my eyes for the last time,

Before gentle eyes that radiated love and warmth,

But on that day,

 I witnessed a cruel twist to my noble dream.

I was born and bred in a rich nation,

Which they called Africa’s bread basket,

There I weaved endless dreams of a brighter tomorrow,

Which were quickly enmeshed in Tragedy’s net,

Never to bear any fruit…

In the dead of night, I awoke,

 And resolved boldly like a man,

To sojourn to the land of my brothers and sisters,

Not to beg, snatch or covet,

But to labor and toil honestly,

To glean a fair and justly-earned harvest,

So I could shine as a man my wife would cherish,

And stand as a father my offspring would look up to.

My faith was trampled to dust,

The day they turned against me,

Seething in anger and blazing with hatred.

Though I pleaded and begged,

My desperate cries fell on deaf ears.

I screamed and writhed in pain,

While the inferno consumed my flesh and bones.

As the excruciating pain and thick smoke strangled life out of me,  

Memories of my younger years flickered in my mind,

Where I knitted dreams of hope and light,

Which were burnt to ashes along with their bearer.

Though a man deserves to die with honor,

This entitlement was robbed from me,

In a tragedy I do not wish upon any living soul.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ruth Mutana is a poet, a writer and a law student at the University of Zimbabwe

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