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Linda Gabriel

SINS OF OUR MOTHERS

  • 1 Mad Slam but not war
  • 2 RWANGU RUFU
  • 3 I COULD HAVE MARRIED YOU MALAWI
  • 4 Would you wake up to go vote?
  • 5 They were Silent
  • 6 TSAMBA
  • 7 Mai Tino
  • 8 My First Housemate | Translations: tr
  • 9 SINS OF OUR MOTHERS
Language: english
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SINS OF OUR MOTHERS

That are never told to us
That are written in silence, on their hearts
Printed on their palms and repeated in their footsteps
That stretches from As to Zs of life

Sins of our mothers
That when we discover them we don’t not hate our mothers
But simply forgive the sisters and thank them for what they did
What they did in darkness, behind bushes, on river banks
In closed offices, at back seats of heavy trucks, rest rooms
On dry grass, plastic shacks, wet floors,


Sins of our mothers
That has made them big time liars, cheaters, whores, haters, murderers
Yet we know them as loving, caring, passionate and sweet
That makes them desert their loved ones in the night
Only to return at wee hours of a new dawn
Instead of pick and paying
They pick and smuggle, Excising the shopping right
To provide the next meal for their children

Sins of our mothers
That makes them go out for a hunt
No matter how cold it is
They pray for a catch before corks start to crow
And this catch should be loaded
If not them they have to endure 2 more catches
For a decent take away home
And next thing, they pay for their children’s tuition fees

Sins of our mothers
Who force their little sons to fend for the family
Only because their fathers died with leaving a penny behind
These boys experience fatherhood without enjoying being teenagers
They stretch their backs digging trenches, pick tea, apples
With the sun heating on them with no mercy
For them it pours

Sins of our mother
Are bruises she got from that cheating bustard
When she laid there naked
Had to deal with his big joy stick that forced itself into her
His groans and moans on top of her can never be erased in her mind
But what to do when her little John needs a penny for a cola when he is with his friends

Sins of our mothers
Who give their teenage aged daughters to men who are older than the fathers
In exchange of bread and a kanga cloth or a bar of soap
Our mothers who let their daughters change men as the way they change their G-strings
For sugar and milk for their tea
Yet they do not tell them to protect themselves when they are out there
They do not prepare them of the concrete world

Sins of our mothers
Who let their boyfriends sneak into their daughter’s rooms
In the middle of the night
For a game of hide and seek
For our mothers simply wants to provide a roof for their children
If these boyfriends are stopped they threaten to walk away

Sins of our mothers
Who abort their of the sixth foetus
Because they are not coping with the 5 children
That they already have.

They cannot feed them, clothe them

Or just offer them a right to their education

Since of our mothers

Who lie to you about the DNA tests

Make you believe that these children are yours

Simply because they know it only you who can take care of her children

 

Sins of our mothers

Who now rote on their deaths bed

Because HIV became their newest companion

That are never told to us
That are written in silence, on their hearts
Printed on their palms and repeated in their footsteps
That stretches from As to Zs of life

© Linda Gabriel
Audio production: Literaturwerkstatt Berlin 2014
Categories: spoken word / Rap

Translations:

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   (My First Housemate)
9 / 9
next poem
(Mad Slam but not war)   
listen to all poems

Linda Gabriel

photo © private
* 02.09.1985, Chegutu, Zimbabwe
lives in: Johannesburg, South Africa

Linda Gabriel, born in 1985, is one of the crop of exciting female performance poets to emerge out of Zimbabwe. Bilingual, her linguistic versatility is forged into brilliant poems written in either English or Shona, depending on which language effectively expresses what issue. She is a powerful orator who has been hooked on performance poetry since high school in 2001 and has since participated in major literary events in Zimbabwe, the rest of southern Africa and Europe. Mostly her work celebrates womanhood and its challenges. She uses the stage to tell untold stories and address taboo matters.

 photo © private

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