“Chimuara” by Dora Manuel Culabo and Landa wo

Chimuara

You were gone – Broken ground

All the beautiful lies of the Bible

And the song for my ancestors,

The woman in the cemetery is gone.

You were gone – Broken ground

You were gone – Lost soul

You were gone – Scream of death

The house of pain is gone

A shout in the night will not bring you back.

Voices in the day –

All the beautiful lies of the Bible

I’ll be there for you on the other side of the mountain.

Write it down, let it go until the next day

Give me your hand if you still love me.

If I die before you I would burn my pain away from the tree,

So much life left over,

Journeys to the other side of the world.

This is going to hurt: your departure hurt me,

You are in my dreams every day but I can’t touch you.

A voice from the other side of the mountain:

I’ll be gone in the dark,

The things you can see only when the sun is down.

You were gone – Broken ground

Are you an angel or a dead flower?

You were gone – Broken ground

I miss you already.

Dora Manuel Culabo is a poet from Mozambique with recent publications in Contemporary Verse 2, Mallarmargens – revista de poesia e arte contemporânea, The Blue Nib and Newfound.

Landa wo is a poet from Angola and Cabinda. His poetry has appeared in Bellingham Review, Colorado Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, Missouri Review, The Common, and elsewhere. He can be found on Twitter @wo_landa