In memory of Dambudzo Marechera

I could have been your friend
But never was I, because we lived in different spaces,
Both in time and intellectuality

I wish I was what I intended to do,
And be the one the world would love and cherish
Sadly, I was an idiot then but not now anymore.

Anyway, let it be. One day, you will say,” he was a great man.”
And I would say, “He was not a stupid.”
I made many wrong decisions.

But not all my decisions were wrong.
Particularly to be whom I am, a writer, never celebrated though.
Having lived half my life in Rhodesia and half of it in Zimbabwe.

Then how will you blame me, when caught in such a metamorphosis?
It reminds me of the the day, my brother said, “You are a fool.”
But was I really a fool?

And one of my sisters said:
“You pretend to be intelligent but you are not.”
Although, it’s two hundred years ago, but was I really such foolish-

To live in both Rhodesia and Zimbabwe,
And to experience eye-opening poverty and criticisms,
And now to stand at the edge of success,as a poet.