Five Poems

by Alkasim Abdulkadir

1. Stoning from Glass Houses!

The took away our lands
And built glass houses
They took away the stones
So we won’t throw stones
At their glass houses.
Yet they throw stones at us!
They forget that those who sleep and snore
In glass houses don’t throw stones!
Verily soon we shall smuggle stones from abroad
Dredge stones from the riverbeds,
We shall plant seed stones and harvest them
We shall throw scud missiles of stones
At their glass houses
Then, they shall know no sleep ever again!
Because they took away our lands
And built glass houses!

2. Jo’burg

Dinghy hovels
Abode of painted black faces of mascara
Adorning Stiletto heels

Loud and blasting
Chaka Chaka
Chugs out notes
For wriggling waists
And thumping club feet
Of downtown Jo’burg
The hallway reverberates
With vicious cuddles
And crimson lips-ticked kisses
They slither in and out
Of promiscuous embraces
Dropping seeds of virus
In passions
In memoriam
We become our own victims

3. Darfur

Turbaned freckled faces
Of light hues
And charcoal shades
Caress AK 47s

Rape
Maim
Massacre
The
Internally
Displaced

We are all flies
Rasping in this dementia
Of needless death

4.The History Teacher.

In Zonkwa
Like in Sarajevo
in Kigali
History repeats itself
As night steals the peace of dawn.
Machetes become the pen
Writing on the torsos of men
Spewing inks in jets of blood.
The history teacher
Who has learnt in books…
The histories of
Auschwitz
Of Sobibor
Of Treblinka
Of Dachau
Acts the histories
He has learnt
From Kigali
As the head fell with a thud
And the headless torso fell with a thump
He made history
His history student whose father’s head
Writhed before him
Learnt a new history
Of Zonkwa,
From her history teacher.

5. Adrift.

I have become a raft
Set adrift
On the high sea of memory.
This ocean of bliss
Ripples through me
I float on bliss
Remembering smiles
Recurring laughters
That are un-ruined
By time.
These memories go deep
Like the depth of oceans.
Lying on sea beds
Are the treasures
Of my memories
I have become a raft
On the high sea of memories.

____

Alkasim Abdulkadir can be found on twitter at @alkayy.