IF BOOKS WERE MUSIC
What if books were music
Which writers would be on your playlist?
And which book will you read every now and then without getting irritated.
Which writer would be your favourite?
That got you hash-tagging and posting all about on social networks.
If books were music,
Would you rock Tshifhiwa Given Mukwevho
Or Jimmy Moshidi?
Perhaps Sifiso Mtshali or the legendary Sindiwe Magona?
Would you know the contents better than the writer just like you know the song lyrics?
Would you download e-books every time a new book enters the stack?
And which writer would have topped the charts?
If books were music,
Would writers be celebrated everywhere they go?
And would your crush be Khaya Dlanga or maybe Jayne Bauling?
Would their literary work be honoured by different sponsors quarterly so?
and have reading sessions at the stadiums and you readers go FillUpTheDome?
What if books were music
Would a writer go gold or platinum from first week of the book release?
And have SAWRO (South African Writers Rights Organisation) collecting the royalties?
Or maybe WiSA (Writing Industry of South Africa) on their behalf to promote them?
If writers were musicians
Would you spend your last cents to go and see them at the library gardens?
And have an eager to take pictures with them?
Would they occupy your phone’s memory just like you have pictures of Emtee or should I say Tory Lanez?
Who would be crowned the queen of words?
And the king of fiction?
Or should I say the best newcomer?
What if Sindiwe Magona told you that she has been Chasing The Tail Of her Father’s Cattle in order to thrive and survive?
Or maybe you want to know if John Dunne had a crush on Maya Angelou?
Maybe Philip Mothupi hasn’t told you where does the title Ga Le Batswadi Ba Selo come from
Maybe those words are from the angry Tahlego Maleka with Jimmy Moshidi,
after being on a rough journey with Tshifhiwa Given Mukwevho on The Gestures Of Life?
If books were music,
Maybe Oswald Mtshali should remind the nation how writers have become An Abandoned Bundle.
We hope and long for W. Somerset Maugham’s Soft Voice Of The Serpent,
that maybe it will all be well.
If books were music...
©Musa Gift Masombuka 2016.
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