Songs of Anisha
“Daddy”
by Dolly Parton
Daddy I feel that I must talk to you
Are you sure this is what you want to do?
Now it's not for us kids that I beg you to stay
Please don't just walk out on Mama this way
She's mothered your children, she's spent her whole life
Trying to be a good mother and wife
And she stood by you when the rest let you down
Daddy, how can you walk out on her now?
I'm your oldest daughter, my age twenty-three
Your new love is even younger than me
She's young, she's pretty, her hands soft as dew
While Mama's are withered from working for you
Mom's not young any more like your new love
But your new love won't love you like my mama does
You've taken her best years, so don't leave her now
Please, Daddy say that you won't let her down.
“Dying Suns,”
by Gaamangwe Joy Mogami
Your children are maddening gales of claret dusts,
And gyrating loops of infinite longings for your swollen womb.
Their gaggle laughter used to be clandestine alchemy
And sleeping trees in the middle of the century.
And now, Kalahari is arctic shadows
And they are wearing the hours inside out.
The windmill is still churning the ancestors’ songs of terrors.
And the black sea has made a home in the spaces between their skeletons.
And here you are, throwing the dice against their light.
Have you forgotten how to hold dying suns?
5