Words stimulate the brain’s pleasure centers.
Introduction by Terry-Jo Thorne (Researcher & Writer)
Poems selected by Alex Gwaze (Curator) & Terry-Jo Thorne
Flirting is a quiet art — a soft danger wrapped in language. In the space where sweetness meets suspicion, words can shimmer with seduction while carrying the power to wound, to lure, to corrupt, especially for women who know how easily charm can slip into something sharper. Desire hides in double meanings, compliments mask intentions, and manipulation often arrives disguised as affection — a warm tone covering cold motives, a gentle phrase bending the will. In this world, a voice can slip under the skin, drawing you closer even as it threatens to bruise without ever lifting a hand. This is the power of words — a dance around a fire.
Masterpiece
BY TYRONE TAKAWIRA
Zimbabwean writer and poet, a Mandela Washington Fellow, and winner of the Wole Soyinka Global Essay Competition. His essays and poetry have appeared in major anthologies, including Brittle Paper, The Kalahari Review, and the Black Lives Anthology.
your lover sips his coffee.
as he writes about you.
your lover sips his coffee.
as he puts your soul into a poem.
your lover sips his coffee.
as he writes your smile.
on the tenth page.
your lover stops.
his eyes meet yours.
he says.
you are his masterpiece.
T’illa, I’ve a sonnet for your bonnet
BY NATHANIEL Z MPOFU
Zimbabwean writer and Librarian also known as The Penmaster. Nathaniel is Bulawayo Arts awards (BAA) and African Writers awards winning, author who has published 10 books to date.
Time itself cannot incur,
An eternity long enough to tear.
Away, how I love the poison in your hair,
How it curls fluid kinky,
Beside your stare.
A beautiful mess perched on your shoulder.
Heaven rare.
Aesthetic echelons of your beauty stumbling with care.
Transparent shadows corner your eyes,
Accentuate your browns and calm a sea’s tides.
Curves and nude lipstick,
I hear angels asking God for new make-up kits from ekhaya!
Sweet fairies nesting in either cheek.
Magogo’s genes gleam in your teeth.
Creation without you would be incomplete,
Imperfection is a myth
You’re where soil, wind and our passion meet …
When You Forget
BY ELSPETH CHIMEDZA
Zimbabwean writer, editor, and cultural commentator, nominated for both a Zim Achievers Award and a Zim Blogs Award. Founder of Groove Magazine International and EC Creative Consultancy, and former Youth Village ZW editor and ZiFM Stereo contributor, she is also a spoken word artist performing under the pseudonym Eloya Somaine.
Men
When you forget the value of a woman
She doesn’t remember what it feels like to be attractive.
When you forget who this woman is
Your words pierce through the heart
She slowly dies a thousand deaths.
When you call her bitch
You call her fat, ugly, stupid
You compare her to other women
Yet in her bed you sleep
Yet her food you choose to eat
If she is not good enough why don’t you just leave?
When you forget who this woman is
You pick another up by the shops, in street, in the club or in a bar.
You tell her you like her, she is cute, pretty
Beautiful even.
You tell her all the right words,
Sweet words, sweetened with even sweeter coffee,
Drinks, gifts, meals, lures.
When you pick her up in you car,
you forget who?
When you forget who this woman is
You do not care about the pain of the rejection
Or when she sheds the tears of humiliation
When she sees you and her – there.
When you forget who this woman is
You betray her trust.
A woman has no place of safety
Whether in her home
Or at school, workplace,
Or walking down the streets
Everywhere she goes she is prey.
Vulnerable to words from you, men.
When you forget who this woman is
When promises of forever disappear
As soon as she announces that you are going to be a father
You forget that she did not conceive alone.
Now you call her a whore
Her face you don’t want to see
Her child is not your responsibility?
Futsek!
Men
When you forget who this woman is
Remember that woman is,
Your mother,
You aunt,
Your daughter,
Your sister,
Your wife,
Your neighbour,
Your bestie,
Your lover.
The reason you spun those words,
in the first place.
Cover image is a photograph of models Aminata Maria Eve and Ibrahima Kane captured by Stefan Kleinowitz: it was published in Lartisana Shop.
MUD Journal 