Mwanangu Chiramwiwa
unopindireiko mumadhaka ako iwaya?
Wabva wazvizora chiso chose kudai!
Wakunge kapoko keparwizi Tiringindi
kanobvunza vanhu zvitupa kunge kapurisa!
Kapoko Magareta kanoshusha vanhu vanozvifambira.
Wakubva wanyora madziro ose kuti Chiramwiwa?
Pose Chiramwiwa, Chiramwiwa, Chiramwiwa…
Ndiani akakupa zita rine chirevo kudai?
Pamusuo, pasherufu, pakabati, pachigaravakwati…
Inongove Chiramwiwa, Chiramwiwa, Chiramwiwa…
Dai uchigona kuvaka mavara taiti zviri nani, Chiramwiwa.
Unotokombamisa mavara kunge mabharani wekwaDotito!
Mabharani Kadohwata akadzidza nepahwindo!
Ndiani angaverenga mabharangisha emadhaka iwaya?
Pazasi pacho apo wanga uchida kunyora kuti kudii?
O! Mai vanguwee, wanga uchida kuti Zimbabwe…
Ndokuguma wati Simbarambwa? Kunge kutuka!
Chiramwiwa, ndiani ati ukanye matope iwaya?
Vamwe varipi zvawasara wega mumadhaka iwaya?
Tarisa wati piriviri semutsvanzva wepaguva.
Uchaita sei netsimba rako rawadhinda pamucheka wambuya?
Uri gudo chiverevere here, nhai Chiramwiwa?
Tarisa zvanza zvako izvo kumadziro emba yose
Dai wageza mawoko madhaka asati awoma, Chiramwiwa.
*Kubva muna Shamhu Yezera Renyu
Also by this poet:
Memory Chirere is one of the more visible contemporary Zimbabwean writers. Chirere mainly writes short stories and some of which are published in No More Plastic Balls (1999), A Roof to Repair (2000), Writing Still (2003) and Creatures Great and Small (2005). He has published short story collections among them; Somewhere in This Country (2006), Tudikidiki (2007) and Toriro and His Goats (2010). Tudikidiki and Toriro and His Goats each won the National Art Merit Award in the respective years that they were published. His most recent book is a prize-winning collection of poems entitled: BhukuRisina Basa Nekuti Rakanyorwa Masikati published in 2014.
For Chirere, a short story is a just tumultuous episode in the life of a character. What is short is the narration and not the experience being dwelt upon.
Beyond his creative work, Chirere has compiled and edited various other short story anthologies; Totanga Patsva (an all-women short story anthology), Children Writing Zimbabwe (an anthology of short stories for children by children) and, together with Professor Maurice Vambe, he compiled and edited the first critical book on Charles Mungoshi called Charles Mungoshi: A Critical Reader.
Memory Chirere runs an active literary blog. He is currently with the University of Zimbabwe in Harare where he lectures in Literature.