MASOJA *
(with apologies to Rupert Brooke)
If I should die, think only this of me;
that there’s some corner of Australia
that will be forever Zimbabwe.
In that rich earth, a richer regalia,
a dust, which Bulawayo made of me;
suited , I thought, to success not failure,
but no-one told Ian Douglas Smith you see
that our cause was a dying dahlia!
Its pollen now scattered far and away.
A Rhodesian Rose for which less and less
understanding and sympathy is given:
a polecat of a dog which once had its day.
I hope now, in vain, for a gentleness
in hearts, at peace under a Zimbabwe heaven.
*’Soldier’ in Ndebele.
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