The rockblasting poet's diary: Julius Chingono (2003)

SOURCE FOR THIS PICTURE: Poetry International

Experience the incredible shrinking salary effect of the endlessly crude, rampant Zimbabwean inflation between the lines of a local poet's diary... Poetry International provides a summary of his bio: "Julius Chingono works as a quarryman [a rockblaster, really] and a priest besides writing poetry. He frequently shows himself to be a keen observer of his country’s situation and the way it affects his countrymen. His poems have appeared in several anthologies, including Flags of Love (1983) and Flag of Rags (1996).".

Fragment of his short diary:"The engineer for CPG Associated called before I arrived. I revise the quotation of the cost of explosives that he wants. The new quotation is $2,306,058.20, a rise of about $900,000 since October 2003. Words are forcing into verses in mind. I feel I must give in to this, to write. Such visitations I know never repeat themselves. I scribble in my notebook. "Give me a chisel and hammer/ I want to engrave/ on granite/ names of unsung heroes/ deleted in history books/ written on people’s lips/ names whispered aloud." I do not finish. The CPG engineer is on the line again. I fill him with the details of the revised quotation."