Born in Zimbabwe, Ndaba Sibanda is the author of several poetry collections, including Of the Saliva and the Tongue and Cutting-edge Cache, both published last year. Visit his Amazon page for a full list of publications, check out his website, and follow him on Twitter @loveoclockn. As a subscriber to our Winning Writers newsletter, he keeps me posted with his latest awards and writings, including these new poems, which he has kindly allowed me to publish here. Sibanda’s work often tackles topics of political corruption and injustice.

Is There Dignity In That Immensity?

she said: if that’s greatness
then it`s also big dumbness

at the centre of a storm
was a disheartening slur

does a fooling fortress
feel a people’s distress?

an outcry from Haiti?
an immigrant’s dignity?

at the centre of a storm
was a demeaning affront

aimed at amplifying inferiorities
and shutting out minorities

at the centre of a storm
was a disparaging injury

aimed at scarring ethnicities
and massaging supremacies

was there an outpouring of rage
from African nations and all?

in contemptuous terms
supremacy became diplomacy

who knew that immigration
was degradation in a great nation?

who knew that protection
wasn’t other people`s right?

who knew that being an immigrant
was no assimilation but a crime?

what was Africa’s contribution?
was that not ungrateful dumbness?

what could be a poor immigrant’s input?
maybe the question was: who wasn’t one?

****
As If They Didn’t Know

was our unkind king frog
nocturnal in nature?
they asked when
he had been ferried away

he spent most of the day
snoozing in his citadel
hidden amongst gold
and lies and loot

was our unkind king frog
gregarious in nature?
they asked when
he was unable to croak

he travelled with countless frogs
to many foreign ponds and lakes
he liked lounging in the exotic
meadows and wetlands too

did our unkind king frog
have a sensual soprano voice?
they asked
as if they didn’t know

he was active in the evenings
and at night: inflating his throat
pouch about the urgent need
to protect our lakes and ponds

did our unkind king frog
protect our lakes and ponds?
they asked
as if they didn’t know