Somewhere in the middle of a tea plantation
The sun turns red in the green horizon
Bidding goodbye to the busy day
Children dart around as they play
Mothers bring in their full baskets
Men come in latest, in groups of three
Tired they sit under the Mugumo tree
A mother reprimands her children
For not closing the door of the goats’ pen
A young man whispers to a young lady
Telling her that his new house is ready
The men under the tree talk in low voices
About their cruel employer and his vices
Smoke billows rise from the eleventh hut
A good sign that food is ready at last
Men crawl, each to his thatched hut
To eat the cassava meal before night rest
As they give counsel to their eldest sons
Because heritage is passed on to firstborns,
In the bush a leopard watches the village
Planning when its attack it will stage
But the warriors saw its footprints
Sharpened their spears and flints
To stop it at its own tracks and save the herd
Read Ancient Love – A Poem by Valentine Tusai, Zimbabwe
