Poet and performer, Jenni Nixon, lives in Sydney. She is a graduate of the Independent Theatre and worked as an actor for many years, touring with the Queensland Theatre Company. ‘Zimbabwe thunder’ is included in her recent performance poetry chapbook, Agenda (Picaro Press, 2009).
Zimbabwe thunder
Jenni Nixon
boy billionaires in Zimbabwe
can’t buy an egg
twenty-five billion Zim dollars
won’t buy a newspaper
King Despot is in his counting palace
counting all the bodies
ninety percent unemployment
amnesty to his henchmen
activism in a time of cholera
protest brings arrest
generals give the orders
BOOM BOOM go the guns
unpaid teachers cannot feed
or clothe themselves schools close
distant thunder river undercurrents
flow around rocks over mud flats
locked away in stinking cells
dispossessed in land invasions
white farmers killed by looting
’war veterans’
land lies fallow
stagnant sewage and water
smoke rises on burning corpses
enter another medieval age
King Despot Mugabe’s birthday bash luxury
long silent queues register to vote
hope in Zimbabwe
change will come
Zambezi River
deafening roar over the Falls
Mosi-oa-Tunya – ‘smoke that thunders’
is the people’s voice
Published in Agenda (Picaro Press, 2009).
Read more about Jenni.
Tags: Australian performance poets, Australian poets, Jenni Nixon, performance poetry, performance poets, Picaro Press, poems about Zimbabwe, poetry, poets, political poetry, protest poems, protest poetry, Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe thunder
2009/06/29 at 11:13 pm
Whew. This burns.
2009/07/01 at 2:45 am
Scorching. Great rhythm to the words. I’d love to hear her perform.
2009/07/01 at 5:56 pm
Brilliant and true. “Mosi-oa-Tunya” is Sesotho (“Thunya” in Sesotho of Lesotho). Yay!
2009/07/01 at 6:43 pm
Wow. This is so powerful. Yes, I’d love to hear it. A very important piece.