FOUR POEMS
How can I boast?
How can I boast
About my colour
As if I got it
From a parlour?
How can I boast
About my life
When I can’t bring myself
Back to life?
How can I boast
About my possessions
When my possessions
don’t determine
My final position?
How can I boast
About my abilities
When I can only do
What I’m enabled to do?
This is what I’ll do
I’ll boast and I’ll brag,
Not in who I am,
But in He,
Whose handiwork I am.
©2007 Shilla Mutamba
The cat from next door
The cat from next door
Thinks our front door
Is its loo,
So it does its poo
On the floor.
Wish I could let
The cat’s owner know
About the floor,
But the man from next door
Won’t open his door!
©2007 Shilla Mutamba
My child
I see in you
A bit of me
Still you are you
And I am me.
I see in you
Something new
I hope you see
What’s in you.
Shilla Mutamba
Freshness in the air
There’s a new wave coming
And a fresh wind blowing.
The waters are rising
And a fresh fire is burning.
The old is going
The new is coming.
Don’t stop pushing!
S
hilla Mutamba
was born in Zimbabwe where she studied Medical Laboratory Sciences at the University of
Zimbabwe.
She then relocated to the Isle of Wight, UK to take up a post as a Biomedical Scientist. She has since
obtained an MSc in
Biomedical Science from the University of Portsmouth (2002) and now works as a Specialist
Biomedical Scientist. She
currently lives in Coalville (UK) with her husband and their two girls. Her first publication
was a letter that she wrote to the
Editor of the Zimbabwe Herald when she was 12 years old. Her short stories and
poems (written under her maiden name
Shilla Ndlovu) have also appeared in her former High School newspapers and
magazines as well as other publications in
Zimbabwe. Her noteworthy achievements include publication of poems in
the Zimbabwe Women Writers' Anthology
(1994), Tsotso Magazine (1993). She is currently working on a collection
of poems and hopes to get her first poetry book
published in the near future. This is her third appearance in Munyori
Poetry Journal.
Shilla Mutamba