Reserve Husband in House of Beautiful Things

In my Tumbuka tribe in Zambia, a man is his brothers’ wives’ reserve husband. Traditionally, this is an informal but serious involuntary and platonic bond that commits the reserve husband to taking care of the sisters-in-law and, especially, the children, should some incapacitating or fatal misfortune visit the brother.

I am a single, never-been-married man with several wives from a few select blood brothers and bosom friends. I introduce one of the wives as I invite you on a day at my work place of beautiful things.

Our vehicle is the poem ARTWORKS ALIVE, which happens to be the very first piece in Onslaught 1 in the MACHONA GRIT poetry book.

Poems in Onslaught 1 reflect some aspects of my defiant intellectual, philosophical, and spiritual Personal Integrity Fortress against those that hate me.

𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐊𝐒 𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐕𝐄
Separated
By the pond
Wife from another husband
My Dear Brother Ricky
Son Bolokiyo’s
𝘔𝘢𝘮𝘢 𝘝𝘪𝘤𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘢 and I
Met in the face of a book
In cyberspace
Celebrating her birthday
We took mikes and sang
We Dj’d
We danced
Fell on our backs in joy and laughter
We dropped the mikes
Went our separate ways
In the perennial dollar chase

𝘈𝘮𝘢𝘭𝘶𝘮𝘦 𝘈𝘭𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘭𝘢
Blazing in my head
Yandikani Lungu’ spirit
With me in
𝘔𝘶𝘻𝘶𝘯𝘨𝘶 𝘔𝘢𝘤𝘩𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘥
In the north
From where lost souls never return
Black Diamonds
Hustling to bling
In the land of
Black gold

Got to work
I’m so happy
I feel
Artworks’ eyes
On the walls
On me
I clear my head
I see
Artworks on the walls
Dance for me
Artworks’ subjects
Come to life in the frames
[…]
𝗘𝗡𝗗
©Simon Chilembo 14/12-2022

SIMON CHILEMBO  
OSLO
NORWAY
TEL.: +92525032
April 07, 2023

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