Harare

“Restless”
Is a more accurate description
Than “the city that doesn’t sleep”
For there is a lot of slumbering here,
Lots of eyes closed to sufferring within and without
Numbed consciences
And silenced voices-
Yes, plenty of sleep
But rest evades the city.
Harare is a synonym for hustling
For making do with the little one has
For never quite fully
Showing your hand,
For defying the odds
For making more bricks from
An ever diminishing supply of straw.
The ‘bread basket of Africa’
Has been baking thin wafers
Instead of loaves
For a while now.
Yet through it all
Hope
Has persisted
Refusing to die
Resisting annihilation
Raising a nation
Of rebels to despair.

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