POWER BY PELEKANI LWENJE.

GENRE: POETRY TITLE: POWER WRITER: PELEKANI LWENJE, ZAMBIA REVIEWER: OMADANG YOWASI, UGANDA
 
Your ability to fight and overcome your foes is POWER.

Having read the poem POWER by Pelekani Lwenje from Zambia, I realize the persona she creates in this piece "fights" for her empowerment and the struggles she goes through to find her voice is not just because of the rifles at her disposal, but the power and fire within her.

She creates a conflict between society and those who want to flee from its bondage by making her persona "run" and keep on running till her power is felt when she no longer bows to society's expectations.

Among other things, the persona runs as she "thinks about the girls with bellies full of society's expectations." She pities the girls, in other words, she finds them enslaved, powerless and subdued and to this cause, she must run and set the pace for the rest. When she finally reaches the "horizon," she's finally free.
 
The poet uses repetitions to sorrowfully portray the journey of exercising one's power. "She runs" is repeated for its recurring enthusiasm and the persona's ups and downs trying to beat society. In the last lines of the poem, "...is her power." is repeated to acknowledge her triumphal victory in obtaining qualities that determine her power.
Hyperboles, rhetorical questions, similes and metaphors can also be spotted in the poem.