Desire, a burning prison, haunts transnational agency, its aching dreams navigating trauma and visuality through Hillbrows shadowed streets.
i lie down next you
with my starving lips
trembling
& the blue lagoons
of your eyes
tempting
& alluring
how
do i escape the big
pumpkins that sprout
on your warm chest
how do i escape
from the beauty
of your tenderness
& how do i escape from
the milky lane
prison
of your arms
when fire
burns beautifully
between your thighs
how do you kill
a stench of a man burnt
into ashes
we unzip our dirty minds
to blast the thick & glistening
thighs of hillbrow
we salivate at the juicy
sarah baartman’s
& naomi campbell’s
of the night
we loudly dance
shaku shaku
kwasa kwasa
sigide sishaye ne ndlamu
before the ladies of the night
take us up to their rooms
one by one
one by one
just to pay for a one-minute pee
it doesn’t matter
if you are a zulu or igbo
afrika unite
in the name of kuku here
so, welcome to our hillbrow
where decaying & filthy streets
house homeless junkies
in funky clothes
& my brother from another mother
breaks bread with cops
will crime ever stop
in this city?
Zama Madinana is a South African poet, based in Johannesburg. His work has appeared in The Shallow Tales Review, Kalahari Review, , Efiko, Libretto, Brittle Paper, Olney, and other literary publications. Zama’s work focuses mainly on love, politics and social issues. In 2021, he won the third prize of the Sol Plaatje EU Poetry Award. He was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2022.His full-length poetry collection, ‘94 was published in June 2023. In addition to regular performances and readings in Johannesburg and across South Africa, he has performed his poetry in various countries including Botswana, Mozambique, and Lesotho.
