The Mounds by Musawenkosi Wiseman Nyembe

There, lay men.
Life like mine ran in their vein,
vain, they lay lifeless.
There, veins vanish, violently scavenged
by the ants, they walked on and chased away
with pesticides…

now…
there, in the mounds, they feast on their oppressor.
Roles switched, oppressed, he can flee no more, the veins are vacant and in vain
they vanish to dust, nourishing the former victims.

You see…
There, lay men,
The beds are quiet, yet underneath, there is a feast, silent movements,
toiling and storing for the unknown yet to come.
There, lay men who vertically displayed pride and
walked on the consumers of their now horizontal inanimate form.
The mounds are quiet, yet there’s no tranquillity underneath.
There is feasting, toiling and storing…

Musawenkosi Wiseman Nyembe is a Master of Education graduate from the University of Pretoria. His interest in English is literature, especially poetry. As a result, his research study was focused on the challenges faced by learners when studying poetry in English first additional language. His love for literature was instilled by the sight of his mother who read IsiZulu literature for enjoyment. Upon seeing his mother reading, he was inspired to be a reader, a poet and short story writer. At a young age, he developed love for English literature and then studied to become a teacher with majors in English language and Psychology. He is currently a school teacher and departmental head of English first additional language in senior and FET phases. He is also a member of the FET English FAL professional learning community of his district and he is involved in the assessment of English FAL for a cluster of schools in Soweto. Musawenkosi is passionate about literature, the symbolism used in it and always links symbols in literature with reality.