Poetry of Jean-Marie Spitaels

Barres

Il est aux environs de midi,

dans le four mijote un fond de lasagne

qui fera mon ordinaire.

Sur la véranda de la maison, je me tiens

debout

un verre de piquette à la main

et regarde la rue

d'asphalte

sans vie.

Là dehors le soleil fait chaud

et le grillage installé pour raison de sécurité

accentue le gouffre entre la fraîcheur

d'ici

l'air torride de là-bas.

Une femme remonte la rue, lentement,

pour conserver son énergie elle appuie sur une hanche

avec attention

puis sur l'autre.

Son visage est muré

de ceux-là qui n'espèrent plus grand chose de la vie

sinon qu'il faut la vivre.

L'Afrique d'aujourd'hui n'est que barreaux

qui ont remplacé les barrières

d'hier.

Un verre d'eau peut-être pour cette femme là-bas

au visage dur,

qui peine dans la montée...

mais il y a les barreaux.

Bars 

Midday heat

left over pasta warming up

for my lunch

there I am on the stoep

standing

a glass of cheap wine

in the hand

looking down the street

lifeless

black tar

it is hot sun outside

cool here

chasm deepened

by white Trellidor

bars

a woman slowly up the street

struggles

on one hip leaning carefuly

to save her strength

then  on the other hip

empty look

of those hoping little from life

only coerced to live

new bars in Africa today

have replaced

yesterday's

a jug of water maybe

for the woman down there

staring in nothingness

battling her way up...

but there are the Trellidor bars.

Translated from

Craie morte 2007

Jean-Marie Spitaels (born 1939) is a retired medical practitioner and lecturer. He is from the former Belgian Congo and presently lives in Durban.

J.M.has published in French 2 books:

Le Vol d'une Hirondelle (autofiction) 2004

Lignes tracées par Jean  Cornet (short stories) 2007

and a collection of poems:

Craie morte. 2007

In English, 2 collections of poems:

Dust on the road (Poets Printery) 2011

Rocks, Stones, Vugs and Pebbles. 2012

J.M. illustrates his work with sketches drawn "d'après nature" where he tries and capture the essence of what is perceived, aiming at that same incisive quality a poem must have  to be true.

Journey to South Africa, Poetry of Tendai R Mwanaka

We have become raven’s baggage

So we call out like a raven

In raven’s two voices

Fevered breath or our own wounded feeling

Our nightmares starts

Out of “there is no cholera in Zimbabwe”

Out of the dead men from cholera

Out of the dead women from HIV Aids

Out of the dead children from hunger

Out of the dead young adults from political killings

Out of little children become war soldiers

Out of the vengeance of Mugabe’s CIO

Out of the beast ZANUPF, police and army

Out of a country now locked in political gridlocks

Out of the lunatic moans of Mugabe against Britain

Out of the lunatic bile of Mugabe against the west

Out of the forthcoming breakdown due to this defiance

Out of cry songs that now stains the whole region

Out of the stench of South Africa’s silent diplomacy

Out of the stench of SADC and Africa’s denial

Out of a conspiring humanity

Out of this chaos is a journey that leads across Limpopo River.

We are footfalls walking through the dense forest

So many frontiers that we have crossed

So many shadows of so many at one side

And our silenced dreams on the other side.

The raven’s voice falls silent in the darkened leaves

The trees are the only ones who pray for themselves

For the moon always passes on top of them

And in the dark nights we wait for the moon

To tell us to venture into the hungry crocodiles in Limpopo

And I can see their red tongues stretching out

To lick the slime of our yoke and blood.

We are another one among these marauding herds

Limpopo River is now a mixture of silt, blood, bones and scars

Where other traumatised adults giggle chorus of grief

And every anguished cry feed these fat crocodiles

We are now bones within this river’s churn

Soon fish will have to negotiate us.

Biography

 Voices from exile, a poetry collection was published by Lapwing publications Ireland, 2010, a novel of interlinked stories on Zimbabwe, KEYS IN THE RIVER, was published, 2012, by Savant books and publications, USA. A book of essays, THE BLAME GAME will be published by Langaa RPCIG, Cameroon, 2013...and two more books have recently found home with publishers in the USA.