Wounded Earth

Cursed is the hand that wounded the earth

For minor material gains, we forgot the primary laws

That everything is everything and we are all connected

The All in all and the one in many

Incestuous deep wounds in the belly of the earth

The virgin forest ruined by the hand of man

As we continue to chop, dig, and pound

Defiling all that was once sacred

Polluted waters our source of life

Polluted air from the plants to our contaminated lungs

Polluted earth giving us our daily provisions

Exploited humans the monsters we have become

For the sake of gold, we have forsaken our Gods

For the sake of silver, we have sold our souls

For Manganese, we have mutilated man

Remember that a diamond is but a rock in the empty desert

Could it be the deep hole in our collective soul?

That emptiness that will never be filled

Which drives us deep into the ground

Only to find hollow emptiness

Long after we are gone

This wounded earth will heal

The water, the air, and the soil will be cleansed

Mother Earth will be here

Kuhepa Tjondu is a Namibian poet and a lecturer at the Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST). His poetry is influenced by the language and the culture of the people of Koakoland who raised him and the indomitable spirit of the African people all over the continent. His first published poem titled “Truth” was published in England in an Anthology entitled “Whispers on the breeze” in 2009. He is a regular performer at the Township production Bi-monthly poetry sessions at the Goethe Institute in Windhoek. His poems are published in a University of Namibia (UNAM) Press Anthology titled “My heart in your hands” and a number of Township Production Anthologies. In 2020 his poems where published in an African Anthology titled “The Griots of Ubuntu”. He contributed 8 poems to an English/German Anthology of Namibia poetry titled “Like a whisper in the wind/Wie ein Wispern im Wind” which was published in 2022.

Image Source: Art by Anastasia Mily