Youth waxed us with ideals
But age has shown us the real
Love is a maiden’s song
Of an eagle beyond the clouds
Beauty is a boy’s dream
Of a dove beyond mountains
Generosity burns to stumps
Fingers trying to stretch out
Charity is the arrogance driving
Those who keep others indebted
Unity is a shadowy pool where
Minorities are silently drowned
Truth is what lions posit
And that which guns guard
Lies are the bulwark of power
Crowned with a veneer of gold
Equanimity is the diamond tip
Tapering arrows of suffering
It draws out poetry from anger
Coiling out of incinerated hopes
Bruce Zondiwe Mbano (Mzuzu, 1984) is a lecturer in the Department of Language and Communication Skills at Chancellor College. He has authored short-stories, plays and poems, some of which have been published in The Fate of Vultures (BBC prize-winning poetry), Heinneman and The Haunting Winds (published by Dzuka). His poem The Viphya won second prize in the 2000 Peer Gynt Literally Award.