Patience

her name is Patience
she is young and sweet sixteen
and carries three abortions in her womb

pleasure follows her path like death
she is known in the bars for her gyrations and fat thighs

she changes men like handkerchiefs
and prides herself of many broken marriage vows

she fancies herself the ghetto queen
and struts the potholed streets like a cow on heat

she thwarts the questioning stares that trail her
and dumps them in her mind's eye

she thinks, instead, of last's haemorrhage
of drink, dry sex and cigarrette smoke

and swats her future like a fly in the heat
the tinge in her eye speaks of wilted hope
and past rapes

Masimba Kumasi Biriwasha_C
Harare, Zimbabwe, Africa

ENDS