Lamentation--By Ndongolera C. Mwangupili--Malawi

Lamentation

I kneel in prayer. Lord, look
Down upon us - the lost flock -
For you are the ay, the truth and…

    God, you are
    Colourless!
    You are the blackness
    Because black is the absence of colour.

Look upon the black people,
The colourless people.

My people are throwing
Metal balls at each other, flaming metal balls!
We are torching the land. We are torching
It with bombs and cannons!

This is how a people perishes!
This is how a people ends!
This is how a people ends!
We end like a shattered prayer. Amen.

Ndongolera C. Mwangupili works as a Senior Inspector of Schools in Malawi. He has vast experience as a teacher of English and Bible Knowledge. Many of his short stories, poems and essays have been published in the Malawi News and Weekend Nation. His stories are anthologized in Modern Stories from Malawi and The Bachelor of Chikanda and Other Stories. His poem "The Genesis" was anthologized in The Time Traveller of Maravi: New Poetry from Malawi. His other poem "Letters to a Comrade" is published online in India on www.openroadreview.in. He believes that there is a thin line between fiction and reality. All that people write is a re-creation of what is already known to the writer and exists not only in the mind of the writer but also outside the writer, therefore, fiction is actually facts written as if they are not facts. He is married to Angella, and they have a daughter Mary Magdalena.