#ThursPoetry: Plaxedes Matyatya – The Red Carpet

#ThursPoetry is back this week, in partnership with our friends at Gourd of Consciousness, for brand new Zimbabwean original poems.

Plaxedes Matyatya nee Mahanise was born on 2 December 1998 and went to Muteyo Primary school in Chiredzi and Chiredzi Government High School where she completed her Ordinary level. She is a fluent Shangaani speaker and writer who has been writing both poetry and prose under the alter ego Meredith Burtley. She is fond of writing on themes evolving around politics, religion and the environment. She befriended nature and always has conversations with the wild. She has been writing under the able guidance of her husband, Professor Ngugi waMkirii who has nurtured her talent and identified the poet in her. Plaxedes is a member of Gourd of Consciousness Poetry and has written several scattered poetic pieces which she is attempting to gather into one anthology entitled Galaxy Of My Premedieval Existence. She has penned the following unpublished prose narratives; Pearls Of Home, Dark Petals and The Dark Seeds Of Love. She is currently working on a collaborative anthology with Professor Ngugi waMkirii.

POEM
The Red Carpet

A show of elegance,
those who trudge on its surface,
Are man and women of dis-honour,
Clad in elegance,
And represent the bulwark of un-democracy.
They wear these deep smiles of scorn,
As they tread the seams of heaven on earth,
Waving at their prey,
Like blood suckers,
Courting their prey,
With blunt pincers.

Spread to un-dust their glittering shoes,
That sparkle with sanguine affection,
Reflecting not on the suffering of those that route line their streets,
And ululate their pain like deathly incense,
That is the curse of the red carpet.