Havazvione kuti haina mavhiri.
Kwavari imotokari muzvambarara chaiwo.
“Vhuumu!” vanodarovana kana yamuka.
Ivo ndivo madhiraivha neinjini zvose.
“Vhuumu,” vachikuma kuti iyende mberi.
Yave kutokwidza makata mupfungwa dzavo.
Ichidya makomo nemiti nenzizi ichienda.
“Piipu! Pii-pipipipi!” havade kutsika munhu.
Nokuti vanotoziva kuti munhu haatsikwe.
“Bhaibhaaaaai!” vachiwonekana nevadikani.
“Tichakuunzirai zvinonaka,” ivimbiso iyoyo.
“Huuu-uu!” vachienda kunodiwa nemoyo.
“Wuuuuuu!” vave kudzika pana Shashi.
Pamupata weMavhirivhiri koromo kata.
“Hona murungu uyo ari pabhasikoro!”
“Hona musikana wandicharoora uyo!”
“Tarisa miti iri kumhanya ichidzoka shure!”
“Hona dhirezi rinenge ramai vaSekai iro!”
“A! vari kugeza murwizi pasi pebhiriji pachena!”
Inoenda kwavanoda panguva yavanoda.
“Tsviii. Tasvika!” kutaura kwevana vaye.
Vasvika patakasvikawo gore riye riye.
Ngavarege kuzoita zvatakaita isu patakasvika.
Vanoziva vanoti, Mwari anoziva.
*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.