OH SAD ENGLAND

Tags

ENGLAND, poem, poetry, rugby World Cup, satire, South Africa

OH SAD ENGLAND

Oh sad England
they had
a horrific spell
perhaps the
wordy womble
should not
have wished
them well

jinxed them
with his peculiar penchant
for absolute defeat

32-12
being

pretty
complete

CHILD

Tags

Global warming, Humanity, poem, poem poetry political moral, poetry, poverty, South Africa

CHILD

a stick
insect of
a child

her elderly parents
sharing a small tub of
pap and wings with
some oily gravy

sat at this crude streetside
table not a word between them
victim written all over them

and me with
fresh faces with which to
come to terms
in coping with my
sorrow at
state of
the world and
our human condition

so many
set to
suffer as structures collapse
culture cannot contain

and we slide backwards, backwards
retreat down that ladder
of our evolutionary journey

becoming the thing
we did not see, we never
envisaged
the pain and
joy of
our being

hope of becoming and
we reached out
to the stars to
embrace
the discovery of
all that did make us
our destiny so
clearly delineated
in all those
worlds
to discover

now
swept away, all swept away

HERITAGE DAY

Tags

Britain, Colonialism, heritage, poem, poetry, South Africa

HERITAGE DAY

they have shaven and
shorn our heritage

smoothed out the collisions
made it respectable

I myself am
British South African
worst type possible
one whose ancestors
came here
to pick fights
take stuff
out of the ground

stuff that might
have made your
Heritage Day happier
given you a more
meet to braai
a few extra
dops

left you with
a home and a family
loved ones
to celebrate with

not starved in a ditch
where you are now

WHOLE TRUTH

Tags

Colonialism, poem, satire, South Africa

WHOLE TRUTH

came across the
waves to
teach the
natives to
dance

left a hole in
their souls but
(thank God)

nothing quite
as big
as this
one

UYINENE (second poem)

Tags

death, poem, poetry, rape, South Africa, tragic

UYINENE
(second poem)

like a half-
dead spider
he invited her
into his morbid,
decaying world

it was hard to
even look at her
her eyes blazing
with young light
her mind racing with
medium-is-
the message, film, TV, digital,
everything
global, electronic,
hip ‘n cool
about this media

the door closes like a bank vault
he switches to red, like a
killer creature
like an
attack submarine

the red drowns her out
kills her beauty and
her humanity

for an hour he
has the power
of an ancient, evil god

GIANTS

Tags

Chaos, Humanity, identity, mythology, poem, poem poetry political moral, poetry, South Africa, South African, unrest

GIANTS

woke up
expecting at long last
the world to be
at my door
bringing praise
and fame

nothing, but
outside my window
a town engulfed
in flames

seems we are
top tribal, too
excruciatingly
racial a species
to get
anywhere really

and out there a
crazed, maddened
angry giant is
beginning to stir

Oh our relationship
with giants such
a thing of
our childhood
most human
of our monsters
both
dreaded
and enchanting

trampling the world beneath
feasting on the blood
of us
lesser mortals

yet
sometimes with
absolute, breath-taking
startling kindness

lifting us up to see
talk to
the gods

UYINENE

Tags

murder, poem, poetry, rape, South Africa, South African, woman, women

UYINENE

we have to say it
until we can no longer say it

we have to scream, shout, whisper it
until it does in our throats

no one
is born for life taken brutally
no one is born
to have
everything
ripped away

so let’s take the
blood from the flag
and paint our bodies
with it,
dip
our
limbs

deep
what is
cold and frozen, life
denying, hating
our own humanity

deep into that shared
raw red, scarlet

of suffering

that we might learn the love, share
the love
the one and only reason

why
we are here

CBD

Tags

Chaos, poem, poetry, satire, South Africa, South African, unrest, xenophobia

CBD

when the humanity
is stripped, burnt away

then
what we have
all we are
are causes and
consequences
agents
and acted upon

perpetrators
and victims

a body burns and
suddenly nothing can
hold back the empathy
I feel the flames
can imagine
pain of
that extremity

such a
hard price to pay
for being born

and you
sister

raped and bludgeoned
in the post office

what dark confidence
drew you across that
threshold
of horror

there is
always that within
us
grinning slightly

the snake hissing
behind the sofa
that when
went to find it
kill it
so shocked and
outraged

righteous in
your anger

found only that it had
slithered somewhere
had disappeared

and I sit here
know

even as I write
what a dark, neat thing it is
to pour the petrol

ladle
the acid

park
my humanity

see
the snake that I too confronted

reflected in
a jagged mirror

feel it
slithering inside

laughing at my
feeble questions
absence of
solutions

failure to leave my rage, my boiling volcanic rage
felt for the monster, the killer, the rapist

they who have
stripped the mask of
distance, of comfort, containment
off my face

failure to
leave behind, come
to terms with

see from the height of some mountain
as part of a
forever seething, moving, changing
big picture

great pattern in which
giant, small, minuscule, total
tragedies

find final balance,
redress, speak

their
truth

their reason, purpose
meaning

as all
is made answerable and
accountable

are restored to peace; are reconciled

SO FAR

Tags

Chaos, poem, poem poetry political moral, poetry, social comment, South Africa, South African

SO FAR

all night hear shooting
from my window

but
where are the dead?
where are
the dead?

just the popping of
9mm, .45 caliber
then the odd 5.56
7.62 rattle of
automatic fire

the occasional booming
of pump-action shot-gun

sounds just
like fireworks, like
people celebrating
having a
really fun time

but
not as yet
the sound of tanks clattering
down the streets, helicopter
gunships

no, not so far,
not
this time

DURBAN

Tags

Ocean, poem, poetry, sea, South Africa, South African

DURBAN

it’s just the sea
and me

the sound
of the waves crashing

the thought of all
those strange creatures, small
and huge, ungainly
and streamlined

beneath the surface, wealth
of the deep

but you
are not here

I have no idea where
you are you
could be anywhere

could
be
nowhere

be lost
or absolutely found

sharing every moment
completely in
your element

or staring out
across expanse of ocean

quietly, perfectly alone
like me