POEM BY: ALICK MUSHEKWA®

*TEARS OF SALT*

My joy I sacrifice,
My cry you trivialize,
My care you don't realize
My feelings you scandalize

My tears are painful;
My sad wrinkled face you claim to be beautiful
With high pleasure of a deep cry my lips tremble;
While you stand akimbo to watch me crumble
Without anybody to wipe out my tears; my face I fumble

My cry is nothing but a laugh;
No one takes what I have gone through to be enough
Crystals of tears ooze out of my eyes so rough

My eyes miss so years when I used to have tears of joy

My life has become so tough; but for my tears are nothing but "TEARS OF SALT"
Africa my mother land; a beautiful place where innocence is inversely proportional to one's age

We are in a modern world but still in the iron age with the mind of "the younger the person, the more innocent they are."

In Satanism their children they sacrifice; yet the aged are the ones to be painted a picture of a murderer
Growing old is said to be a blessing, yet nothing seems to be pleasing

Accusations of being a witch is a scorching sun that dries up my speech

Had I died early; I wouldn't have faced this shame today of being condemned

My tears are their joy; my happiness is their foe

What did I do wrong to them for me to deserve this shame?

My hope was to raise a happy family, but things have changed over night

My eyes have lost sight and yet no one is there to lead me out of the dark

Was I wrong to bring them on earth?

I can't answer that question, for God says children are a blessing to a marriage

But for the blessing has becoming a curse; carrying their mother in my womb was my duty

Little did I know that I carried my own cross of Calvary

Nails of hunger they pierce in my palm; my head is hooded in a hat of thorns.

Mother she called me; witch her children call me

Father he called me; wizard his children call me

I was once a father, but now am a murderer

Once a mother, but now am called murderer

My freedom to live has become a threat to their lives

My grey hair has transformed me into a masquerade in the eyes of their wives

Visiting them is a scenario they wouldn't wish to happen

My date of death is their long awaited moment to celebrate

My time to live on earth they wish to accelerate

My sickness they go around to accentuate
All is done to let the world have me assassinated ;
The mission is to see me eliminated.

My joy I sacrifice,
My cry you trivialize,
My care you don't realize
My feelings you scandalize

My tears are painful;
My sad wrinkled face you claim to be beautiful
With high pleasure of a deep cry my lips tremble;
While you stand akimbo to watch me crumble
Without anybody to wipe out my tears; my face I fumble

My cry is nothing but a laugh;
No one takes what I have gone through to be enough
Crystals of tears ooze out of my eyes so rough

My eyes miss so years when I used to have tears of joy

My life has become so tough; but for my tears are nothing but "TEARS OF SALT"

In church they give me comfort; yet out of it they still compress my shrunk financial breasts

In the eyes of the government I am taken be an investment

Pictures they capture of me and taken abroad to attract donor funding

However, money they collect for the purpose they don't serve

My own community is treating me like a slave

I can only wish if I were brave to bury the shame in the deepest grave!

My pride lies in history, where my age is considered to have wisdom in storage

Stories of the past gives me honor to still defend myself in the act of fighting for justice

Hospitals treat me with care; for lies I don't dare to spare

When challenges confronts the juveniles I am taken to be their last of hope

When they fail to have children they turn my ramshackle to be their UTH and India

Impotent they come; potent they go!

Barren they come; conceivable they go!
Single they come; married they go!
Educated fools they come; wise they go!

For an old man standing at the foot of the mountain is able to see what a young man sees standing at the top!

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