A Crack on the Wall
Moss eats the monumental wall
Where statues of our dead heroes
Stand in perpetual awe
To fulfill the prophecy:
Every wall shall fall.
A dish of dull-politics
Descends upon the wall. And,
Like lunatics locked in a struggle,
Heroes fight for nothingness.
The two bits of the wall stand apart
Like volcano mouth laughing
At human folly:
What did they want to be-
The barbarians or buffoons?
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 two daughters Mary Magdalena and Princess Cleopatra.
This is an incredible write. I thought this was going to be a totally different poem when I read the title, but your poem made complete sense what the title represents. I loved reading this delightfully remarkable piece, Great work,
ReplyDeleteRussell
Nice work!
ReplyDeleteNice. Thank you for sharing and continued blessings!
ReplyDelete-MJ (www.tgbtgpublictions.com)
Extremely well done! Thank you for sharing this at Whispers. - Laura M Kaminski
ReplyDeleteNdonglera,
ReplyDeleteAn interesting poem. I enjoyed it a lot.
Your new friend,
David Fox
Ndongo, what a great poem!
ReplyDeleteIt paints a vivid picture of a familiar sight in our Malawi. There are too many monuments of nothingness in our context. Yes, they shall fall. They must. But the question is WHEN. While the walls stand, passersby get the impression that the gods and greats of our nation are dead. Too many monuments make the living look average mortals.