The dry seasons of my homeland
are over, let’s love: in plains, in hills,
let’s gather all troubled souls—
the child guardians in trees
tell them to descend now
And dance to the tune
of new village drums. Green leaves
grin in the sun, which winces
and courts the moon;
the stars shall dance too, tonight.
The season of rain has come
the rumble of the sky awakens
joy in some, fear in others. New life
to mothers and fathers
who now troop to the fields
their farm tools raised like shields.
Let’s gather now
on the foothills of Chisiya
and chorus a tune with the rain
and muscle up for the new dance
in the village arena, receiving
the new season, a new breath
of a people once suffocating
so they can declare:
we can breathe again now.
Emmanuel Sigauke, founder and editor of Munyori Literary Journal, is the author of Mukoma’s Marriage and Other Stories, a finalist for the 2015 NAMA Awards in Zimbabwe, and Forever Let Me Go, a poetry collection. He is also co-editor of the collections Roses for Betty and Other Stories, and Sundown and Other Stories, as well as the African Roar Series. Sigauke teaches writing at Cosumnes River College and is at work on his second poetry collection and a novel.