Richmore Tera, Your PEN IS BRAVE!

MP- Richmore Tera, I  call  him  Sahwira  Mukuru. He is an unsung  poet , writer  and journalist  in Zimbabwe . He  and  his  writings  deserve  to be featured  in our Mambo Time  of  the  poet  blog journal. His writings  and  poetry  are brave  as they resonate with current Zimbabwean situation, endowed with  visual imagery  and  sharp  irony.  We are greatly humbled to feature    this   fast rising word carver and we believe his poetry will inspire you profoundly.  Readers continue  to  support  us  and  email  us at miombopublishing@gmail.com.

BILLION KISSES

To every cheek in this world
I am blowing a kiss

And this kiss
Is a rose
Everyone
Should pin
To the lapel
Of their hearts

This kiss
Is a poem
That keeps you company
In the dark dungeons
Of drudgery
And misery

This kiss
Is a cask
Of musk
To mask
The miasma
Of penury
And despair

This kiss
Is the five loaves
And two fish
To feed
The famished multitudes
Of this world

This kiss
Is Florence Nightingale
Bearing her lamp
To heal those maimed
By the rapacious wars
Of this world
Devoured
By maladies
Too deep to comprehend

This kiss
Must expunge
The rivers of turbulent tears
Flowing on your cheeks
After being ravaged
By terrorist attacks
Floods
And drought

This is the kiss
That should cushion you
Like a pillow
And keep you warm
Like an electric blanket
When you go to sleep
On the streets
With the moon and stars
Guarding over you
Like sentinels

This kiss
Is for you
Yearning
For unreachable
Unrequited love
You who has been spurned
Feel free
To grab it
Paste it on your cheek
Wear it on your heart
Like a tattoo
It’s for free

I am blowing you
These billion kisses
So that
You blow them to others
And let them know
Someone in the world
Cares.

THE WORLD  I LOVE

Thank you uncle
For teaching me to love
The world
Without a sword
But roses
And bread
Hidden (as presents) behind my back

Yet

Today, the same world
Whom I learnt to Iove
Unconditionally
Without cactus words
Have turned into my Brutus
And I, their Julius Caesar
Fit to stab in the back.

JOURNEY OF  THE MAGI

We left the stone houses of our land
Following the star to the North
In quest of its light and warmth

Through deserts and seas we sojourned
Plucking thorns from our feet
And of briny waters we partook

Then we reached the place of the star
Where strangers with stone-hearts we encountered
Only for us to retrace out steps to the stone houses of home.

 

 

WHERE ARE THE CARPENTERS?

Nuclear weapons
Are not the stuff
That sweet kisses are made from;
Nor is war
The electric blanket
That keeps the world warm
From the frigid cold.
Rather, we need carpenters of solutions
At the negotiation table.
So where are the carpenters?

NO TO THIRD WORLD WAR
Teargas smoke from yesteryear wars
Still pinch my eyes, making them water as if I have partaken of hot chillies;
My people walk in hobbles, ankles and faces deformed,
Grotesque masks not of God-made but man-made,
From hearts grown callous with avarice and power-greed.

Still, you turn blind eye at my rivers of tears,
At my yells which daily I make in your ears sealed with wax;
With peace-offerings daily I try to pacify your stone-heart, to coax,
Still you wear a smile that is as plastic, a sure hoax;
For no amount of sweet words will ever turn your heart
From its sinister motive
Which is plunging this garden into another Third World War.

(Following his poem titled “Postcard to Leicester” which was featured in the Nuclear Disarmament programme in Leicester, England, in the United Kingdom recently, Zimbabwean poet, short story writer and freelance journalist Richmore Tera has been seized with writing poems based on this topic.
It is reported that North Korea has a military nuclear weapons program, and also has a significant amount of chemical and biological weapons, a development which has seen them being struck off as a member of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. The poem above, and others which shall be featured here, speak out against the dangers of nuclear proliferation.)

 

Richmore Tera– is a poet, short story writer, playwright, actor and freelance journalist who once worked for Zimpapers (writing for The Herald, Sunday Mail, Kwayedza, Manica Post, H-Metro) as a reporter but currently focusing on his creative work. He is the Associate Editor of Chitungiwza Central Hospital’s weekly online newsletter. His works have been read in Zimbabwe, Africa and the Diaspora in various publications which he contributes to. He is the author of the monograph, “Here Leaves Silently Fall”, a collection of poems, which was published by Arts Initiates in Namibia in 2009