Mosi oa Tunya Literary Review ISSUE #2

A F R I C A N
HYMNS
JENNIFER MARIANI
S
I.
ing me a song of a land that is home
And I will sing you a song of Africa
An aria of river music and elephant song
Of baobab melodies reaching towards
the southern cross
I will serenade you with cicadas
after spring rains
The symphony of rustling red-gold grass
Bronzing the Savannah
beneath the piercing blue
Of a sky that soars
From the seas of the skeleton coast
To an ever-ascending Kilimanjaro
The sotto voce of the Serengeti
The anthem of warriors rousing
May we rise again
May we march ever onwards
May we sing evermore
Sing me a song of a land that is home
And I will lead you in a lullaby
Of bush babies and duikers
Soft murmurs in the sun-bleached valley
From the morning mists of Nyangani
To the crescendo of Mosi Oa Tunya
Thundering smoke carving a canyon
That stopped even angels in their flight
Here a melody of wood smoke curling from mud huts
The winter veld
dusk suspended at the edges
of the dying day
A dirge, a lament of loss
And Kraals of cattle dust red
Scattered cantatas, sweeping elegies
the pavane of the plains swelling
To the ballad of the dispossessed
Psalms of sorrow
Hymns of a land
Seared, scarred; a chorus of chaos
The wild, waltzing, wayward struggle
May we rise again
May we march ever onwards
May we sing evermore
P
A
G
E
11
Sing me a song of a land that is home
And I will sing you
The reel
The requiem
The rhapsody
Of Africa
I will sing you
The song of you and me
Here we rise
Here we march
Here we sing
PHOTOGRAPH BY PAUL MILLEY