(a sonnet)
Where have the proud black women gone
Melanin-rich women like Mbuya Nehanda
Women with dark, smooth skin like coal stone
Girls with shiny curls like loud Yolanda
Where have the proud black women gone
With stunning cornrows like Queen Nzinga
Where have the daughters of the dust gone
Daughters pretty like Geechee girls or Dinka
Black women with pride and Afro like Angela Davis
Where have the sassy black women gone
That talk and walk with poetry like Viola Davis
Where have the proud black women gone
Now that black skin is bleached with cream like Ambi
Now that black beauty within is disavowed by Abi
David Chasumba (snr) is a Zimbabwean Writer and Poet. He has published two short story collections with Carnelian Heart Publishing: 2023 NAMA award winning, The Mad Man on First Street and Other Short Stories (2022) and Behind the Façade and Other Stories (2024). David’s poems have been published by Kalahari Review, Ipikai Poetry Journal, British Haiku Society anthology (2023), in Best “New” African Poets (2023) anthology and in MEN: An International Anthology of African and Latin American Writers, Volume 3 and in Zimbolicious 9 anthology. David lives in Bexhill-on sea, East Sussex, UK.