On her back now...
sideways
you will see
some hideously
deformed creature
oh squatting uneasy on
my misshapen hind legs,
God sullen, any balancing tail
no! blood-docked down black years, her
red-ringed
eyes long since sealed blind
in membranes
of fear; the hideous paws
are hidden now, writhing deep, no doubt,
at her bloated belly,
scratching sores,
frenziedly stretching
empty dugs frantic
to nurse mutants of
inbred bruderbonds,
the narcissistic
filth from gutters
of crazed greed,
of rancid hate.
Even as such
obscenities lie
dying, South
Africa’s white
poisons
run.......over
us.
...but rising
but
changewinds turn
the tide of fortune;
each broken nose quivers
at the faint smell of hope;
fear-drawn eyes,
bruise-dark,
seek a new freedom beyond
despair; old scars tighten
across red dreams, warm
blood
weeps for the dry
homeland’s
wall-eyed sockets of
defeat
where now a creature stirs,
turns and twists
in a loop
of black birth, a
necklace
of memory firing
his throat;
he wraps steadying
hands
around his
waking heart,
balances on
sturdy feet
to affirm
sharp purpose;
the mind has its own
integrity,
its quiet destinies.
High-couraged now,
a black
Africa
rises
up,
stands to.
(June,
1988)
