All the Good Help

As well as essays, fiction, photography and video, Granta.com publishes poetry that does not appear in the print magazine. Today we are pleased to publish a new poem by Togara Muzanenhamo. A Zambian-born poet, he now lives in Zimbabwe, where he divides his time between writing and farming.

All the Good Help

He will not understand her fascination
for rain, these summer months of water
that somehow keep the money coming in,
paying for the nurses his granddaughter

has slowly learnt to trust. Now all the good
help is gone, he feels he can spot liars
with one look; and if he could, he would
take care of her himself. All these prayers

for a new body! She doesn’t understand
the joke, but simply stares out the window
where an old broken-down tractor stands

in the backyard, grass screaming out of
sprockets – its joints rusting above slow
gulfs of shadow shot wild with foxglove.

More poetry on Granta.com:

– ‘Remembered Summmer’ by Troy Jollimore
– ‘Reverse Eurydice’ and ‘Apollo: Season Three’ by Rowan Ricardo Phillips
– ‘Whiteout’ by George Murray

Daniyal Mueenuddin, another poet-farmer, published his first ever poem in our Pakistan issue. You can read an interview with him here.

Click here to buy your copy of Granta 112: Pakistan now

See also, from our Pakistan issue... ‘Bradistan’ – Zaiba Malik on growing up as a British Pakistani. Also recently published are ‘Six Snapshots of Partition’, John Siddique’s scattered memories of his father; a short animation inspired by our issue; and John Freeman’s blog from his visit to Lahore. Plus our satirical series, ‘How to Write About Pakistan’.