When Gogo hands me fifty cents for crumbs
I run to the shops, dust bathing barefooted
fast as my ashy legs can go,
dodging drunkards staggering from kwaDakudzwa,
hopping over streams and puddles of septic water,
snubbing the cat callers’ clamour:
Chidhafu dhunda! Chichanetsa pachinokura!
It is time for Jonas, and
Epworth’s hub is buzzing with novel progeny
on temporary pass from filial fuss;
the momentary abundance ups the frequency of nonagenarians
squatting over pit latrines when sickness is as rare as death.
Behind the big shops: kwaChiremba, kwaSolani, kwaMtandwa
where we buy Lobels and London delivered hot at daybreak
before we’re off to play nhodo, pada, nhanzva
next to God’s feet at Domboramwari,
or to barter trade snot for good measure
behind the Balancing Rocks,
a small pop-up shop sells savoury pastry breakages
in cone-shaped newspapers drenched in Olivine oil: Kuma crumbs!
Sometimes I wolf them down whole with only my saliva
Sometimes I have extra five cents for a penny-cool to wash them down.
Sometimes I sit outside with the penny-cool vendors to watch the denizens
whilst savouring the crumbs,
peeling each flake of pastry to discover knick-knacks veiled in its folds:
ishwa, nhunzi, mapete.
It’s a lucky dip still and all, so
I flick out the whatnots and relish the freedom
—to just be.
*time for Jonas/nguva ye Jonas – bonus time
Also by this poet:
Samantha Rumbidzai Vazhure is a bilingual author who grew up in Masvingo. She resides in Wales, usually writing about matters of the heart, the human condition, the migrant experience, womanhood and equality. She has published a poetry collection in chiKaranga – Zvadzugwa Musango, which she translated to English – Uprooted, a novel – Painting a
Mirage, and a collection of poems – Starfish Blossoms, which won the NAMA for Outstanding Poetry Book in 2023. Samantha has also compiled short story anthologies by Zimbabwean writers, Turquoise Dreams and Brilliance of Hope.