Country Man

Give me a bottle, Country Man
Our usual hard stuff, fiery and numbing.
My fifty bob is here, sir
It's all between me and Jesus' coming
So don't mess with my change
I want it now, before I forget remembering

And listen to me good, Country Man
When we come to you, be the sponge that can sop our sorrows
Hurl us across this valley of torments
Give tomorrows, we borrow!
Instead you have quickly turned us into stiffs
And those you can't kill, you trap them to walking sticks
It's not good, Country Man, its not good!

Stop saying am raising my voice at you, Country Man
You don't know an inch how hard it is to be me!
To hustle in this country where my name tells it all
In this country,
Where a festival of road carnage is going on
Where a season of blasts is in earnest
And you, Country Man, you won't spare my brother still!

You've poked fingers deep into my nose, Country Man
So deep, I can't breathe
You want to tax me even on rights so conjugal
How can I ever trust your smile again?
When you are here busy, beating drums for those that suck our blood?
At noon you call yourself our savior
At dusk you sneer at our trusting patience
And then join the strides of those that mark our mass graves.

I go to bed with a millstone of debt around my neck

Tomorrow I wake up, the debt is even huge, I can lift myself up

Whether you turn us East, away from the West

We are still slaves, worse off even

Where are our rhinos, Country Man, our elephants?

You have sneaked their goodies to friends in the East

Those that give with one hand and steal with the other!

Oh stop it, Country Man!

Don't put out the light on me

Even if you do so, I will still find my way to my mouth

And give me my change, its my right

You've always promised me change

No wonder you poison and blind us

So we can go and forget about it

Damn you, Country Man!

Sometimes in August

Twas some times in August 
When we met, over three decades ago 
I was just a faceless tiny red thing, yelling my way into the world
Clinching something in my hands 
And you were just beginning life, on the cusps of your forties
Then sometimes in August, nine years ago 
You boarded that bus into the land of no return 

Sometimes, I miss you sometimes 
Especially when an old songs wafts through the radio
And drives me back to eighties when I was still a little boy
When you would unwrap your LP in the sitting room
There, when we used to live at Government Quarters, Mbotela
And you would slide those ‘plates’ on the LP
And Franco and Ongaro would fill our house with life
My brothers and I would sit there and watch you nod
Just sit there and watch, afraid to dance but loving it
Because it was Christmas
Because this was rare

Yesterday I heard one of those songs
And like a bridge it took me back to you
And I missed you
Yet you’re so far away
On that other side of life
Away, oceans away

You were here with us once
And it seemed it would last forever
It seemed too early to say ‘I love you’
The words wouldn't come even in our happiest of times
Then destiny began to snatch you away
And we could do nothing but just watch you go away
Sometimes I feel it was a lost chance
But I know you understand that I cared

Our years apart have been full of silence
And memories that I cannot rearrange
Your silence in life taught me that not everything is worth saying
Your silence in death teaches me that every moment is worth everything
That today I should live it to the full
So tomorrow there won’t be no space left for small sorrows