Sunday, June 2, 2013

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.

4 comments:

  1. Oh how this poem tugged at my heart strings. How it inspires me to pray for all black people who are struggling to find the way to peace in their hearts and think war is the way. Indeed the Lord is the only way.

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  2. This is a flaming bullet to those groping for another soul to scorch with their guns, canons and bombs. Unfortunately, warmongers don't read. They kill. They kill. Mercilessly killing until they cannot kill any more.

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  3. Dear Ndongolera

    "Shattered prayers" to a colorless God is startling. As James above says "warmongers don't read." I wish your country and so many others could be lifted up in peace. For you it is broken bodies, broken cultures, as well as broken hearts. I pray that hope is never broken and changes come.

    love,
    Kathy

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  4. Thank you, Arthur Ford, for the following comment--

    LOVE THE POEMS BY JACK CLUBB,MWANGUPILI AND SHANNON(I SEE SHE'S A "CHIP OFF THE YOUNG BLOCK")(LOL)!!!

    GOOD STUFF!!!!

    yours in words,
    arthur

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