Dream (Landless Zimbabweans) Poem by Wensislaus Mbirimi

Sleep, death's counterfeit, brought a dream
Dream, life's counterfeit, as I slept
Ailing country, in a meddle and turmoil, filled the dream
Immense riches being plundered, I saw as I slept

Peopled by the elderly and the sickly, living frugally
Led by fatty, plundering, raping, thieving few.
Equivocators, tongues double pronged, brutally
Tighten your belts - in the dream said the few
Elderly did. Lest from narrow waists, pants did fall
Fatty fatty did, lest the huge tummy and butty be exposed
To be fed, the sickly to the fatty made a call
Fatty listened but never heard, only feared being deposed.

The dream swept I to the valley by the stream
Imagery more vivid unlike a dream
Featuring multitudes in back breaking postures of labour
Sweat on brows slaving and selling their labour
For a pittance the few milked the multitudes
The cunning of the few overrode multitudes' meeky attitudes

The dream shifted to a land barren & useless
Overcrowded, people overawed and restless
Across the stream another land nestled
As fertile as the other land's fertility from it had been wrestled
Svosve, an elder from the barren land stood up
Belongings and all, a fertile piece of land he took up
A slanging match ensued - who was the owner, who was owed
Every land is to be taken, nay-reclaimed old Svosve vowed
The multitudes took up the chant
Fatty fatty took up a threatening stunt… … …

Then I woke up.........