Africa--By Ndongolera C. Mwangupili--Malawi

Africa

It is the blackmail of your beauty
And your arrow-like gaze as you stand
In the warmth of my arms
That vanquish my manliness.

Africa, my Africa, I sing
Of your indigenous ornateness,
The African symmetry of your figure
And the fragile tenderness
That enveloped you.

I do not need a banjo or a drum
To sing a song. You are my song:
Those shimmering eyes are a song,
Your breath is my music,
Your heartbeat is a drum
And your mouth is a horn of music.

You are a light
That stands out in light;
Music in every song;
And a moon in all seasons.

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.