THE FUNERAL PALOUR

Still births, witches and wizards
Unforgiven sins and disease
Infested bodies stray snakes and stolen court evidence
uncountable matchsticks and more than many barrels of flammable juices

Victims of political violence, thugs and victims of the AIDS epidemic
Voluntary life terminations, rotten corpses of soldiers who fought in borrowed wars
Blood stained garments from manufactured road accidents
And soul eating images of long gone lineage members
All in the funeral Palour

Once i saw a live human corpse and mourners screaming for their dear lives
The corpse was pinned down before being taken to the crematorium
Where his body was burnt to ashes reminiscent of the pastor's 'ashes to ashes'

My shoulders became heavy with life's meaningless meaning
Evil daughter beggot a bustard son
In no time the body was in the palour
As if the palour would prophesy about the whereabouts of the boy's father
Does a crippled boy understand the pleasures of a jumping castle?
Does a coffin purify or unlify life' violence?
The mystery of life and death lies between the two giants so says the undertaker
Afterwards he giggles blissfully like he has just discovered the great secret behind mortality

By General S.R Mpofu
(Freelance Journalist, Human Rights Activist and Advocate for Political and Social Justice in Zimbabwe)
www.sheuregie.blogspot.com)