possessed by the spirit of liberation Torerai, like many others, hastened and left without

deliberation,

all they knew was that for their futures, the struggle called for their contribution. 

without thinking if it was for women            or men, they all made the sacrifice, comrades

enough despite what others rewrite, and who they now prop in the hat of heroes for

selection. 

possessed by the spirit of liberation    they bled and carried on, starved and carried on

were raped and carried on. 

today in the future, they fought for     reality wounds with self-revelations as comrades 

say they are filled with too much rage as women    and call them prostitutes for having babies

in the bush 

truly knowing that it is their hands filled with blood and who the absent fathers of

those babies are. 

so they reinforce the archaic pillars to render them powerless, can you imagine the

greed of it all?

possessed by the spirit of liberation, Torerai’s nightmares prod her to ask if it should have been

made clear in the bush that    emancipation was for all

comrade is a word that finds a new slippery and fleeting meaning after     the war 

the spirit of liberation is not      a mirage after all, she sees it in the fiery eyes of some of the

young ones  of today

on cloudy days when the struggle of the suffocating     land continues and delivers 

the wrath of her internal wounds of      moons past, she remembers Teresera and

regrets nothing    she tells anyone who can lend an ear, 

‘even     I, too, died      for this country.’