Poetry and Creative Writing for All

David Mayombwe

I’m a Ugandan poet, soon turning 28 and I’ve been writing for 10 years now, that since I found a copy of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales carelessly tossed on a bed in boarding school (I appropriately stole it). I am interested in poetry in all its diversity, from the ancient to the modern to contemporary to oral forms. Anyway my poems speak more of myself than I ever could. You can find a few at my space at www.myspace.com/mayombwe . I’ll see you when I see you.

My Unborn Child

My dear unborn child
Even though you are not here yet
But when you choose to come into our lives
Mine and your mother’s, who isn’t even pregnant,
Know I thought of you before your event
I am thinking of your hair and pretty eyes,
And anticipating my answers to the questions you’ll ask
Of the wonders and calamities of this world.
May fate prove as kind as my tender thoughts
Nothing more of God do I ask
But that when you come he grant you
the gift of laughter and appreciation of flowers.
After these surely the other graces on their own will follow.
My prayer is that you fill my tomorrows

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The Great "What-If"

Every man is a god unto himself
And whichever other gods he worships
He only does ‘cause he chooses
And they, are secondary to himself.
Every man unto himself is perfect and ultimate
The gods only serve to suit the roles and purposes
To which they are set, like tasks to a proud servant.
We are not the gods’ toys, nor fools
But rather, they are our tools
Unto those things we can’t achieve ourselves
Our gods are mostly of two kinds;
The ones that are for our peace of mind,
For both the frustrated and guilty conscience
But others are only a form of insurance,
The relief when all our other efforts fail
Or just incase there is indeed an afterlife
And a heaven and hell.
The great “what-if?”

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Waking and Watching

Waking up besides you
Watching your lashes flutter open
Like butterfly wings when it finds pollen
It is moments like these that I understand what is beautiful
Watching how your chest rises and falls
Under the sheets like the evolution of mountains into valleys
And finally they take on the gentle rhythm of the morning.
How your yawn is more like a sigh
And how your breath forms a cloud in the cold air
Like you were a goddess giving life to the new day.
Am blessed to be a watcher of these miracles
The soft circles of your eyes, the lines of your mouth…
I like how your first expression is always alarm when you find my arms
And then the surprise of recognition before the warm calm.
And then you shake the dreams from your hair
Like it was a net in which some cumbersome fish have tangled
I like to imagine, as you wake, what places your dreams have traveled
Some times I see China , sometimes the fear of our future.
I love my thoughts of you as I wait for these moments
Like a child standing below the counter quite afraid to ask for candy
Yet knowing she will get it, for patience always gets rewarded
I like to think of your body as an unmapped continent
And me the Columbus who will reveal it to the world
And so I keep vigil on your sleep with the keenness of study
Finally you blossom into your whole self
That’s the way I want to start the day the rest of my life;
Watching you become you.

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Submission Guidelines: Poems of no more than 30 lines in length each will be considered.