i. soldiers on the streets

your liberators
are singing the same song
as their oppressors’

VIOLENCE

 

ii. our township

our township has forgotten
how to hug
sheer peace

because the streets only befriend
rifles that cough out
angry waves of fire

the streets only remember
turbulent taverns
that are always drenched in blood & tears

here ezakheni
amagugu ayosala ema-taverni

& we shall cleanse ourselves
in a lake of hansa pilsner
& smiramira

here ezakheni they turn your body into a sieve
leaving a heap of bullet shells
on the dance floor

& kwaito beats never surrender
even when cops
come for a corpse

& amapansula move
like a tennis ball
in all-star sneakers

our township has forgotten
how to pray
because sexual predators
are the pastors we worship

 

iii. give me love, azania

when i wander
under the sky of broken freedoms
& empty promises

wrapped in the chameleon
tongues of black politicians
& double agents

engulfed by the memories
of terror in marikana
& phoenix

trapped in a ballot box
of looters
& economic terrorists

o, azania
give me love
azania

hear my silent screams

as i drown
in the heavy rains
of human rights violations

hear my silent screams
azania

as i drown
deeply in a pond of blood
labahlali basemjondolo

give me land azania
to return the bones
of my forefathers back home
killed by vervoed and de kok

give me land azania
ngoba yifa lesizukulwane
sami

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo by JSS Photography on Unsplash