Ngwatilo

Poem for a Census and a Forecast (The Star: 1.09.09)

i
My government wants to know if I live, if I am dead.
My government wants to know what I do for a living,
how many hours I work. It counts my offspring
my livestock my radio my mobile phone. It wants to know
my tribe, the place I was born, if I own a fridge. My fridge
shall help my government plan what to do with bodies and carcasses

ii
when El Niño comes. My government will be in control
it is telling me what to do in good time and meanwhile
I work and pray. For my government is planning
to collect the coming rain so that there shall be food
for the year and enough to store and no one
shall drown. In fact we shall not need a Red Cross or Crescent
to mark our homes for the Angel of Death because we are righteous
at peace with God with each other with nature so no one will die.
My government is steadfast; it does the right thing.

iii
my government is a man,
a giant who speaks every tongue:
he sings to my hair,
it grows long and shiny;

he inspires my hands and feet,
they are calloused with purpose;
he speaks the language of the drum for my hips,
I move like time – if she were a black woman;

he calms the quiver of my breast, even if it
spreads to my bones when there is danger;
he sedates my mind with language
and I am saved for his own hell.

all poems by ngwatilo mawiyoo unless otherwise stated. 

(c) Ngwatilo Mawiyoo 2009