1/25/08

POETRY

Anthem to Doomed Youth (title borrowed from Wilfred Owen)
Sometimes in our own little spaces we get tired of young people dying, especially when the best service we can give their departed souls is to write them poems. This month of January saw two tragedies involving young young people in Shatale (Bushbuckridge) and this is one poem written barely 24 hours after the death of one sista.

molly is no more
(25 january '08)

juvenile chrome child doing gumboot-dancing/
smiling innocently to older boys guess they're flirting/
with a dream deferred like our presiden't vision/
growing up in this ghettos is an unrewarding mission/

given a chance to grow & glow halo like angels/
in the corridors of our struggle our life gets snuffed like candles/
youth clubs big plans to see beyond age 50/
we young rebels harbour dreams to martyr by 50/

molly the rose with a name that's reserved for mongrels/
feminine existing like a cloned she-mongrel/
we ain't never experienced the true meaning of beauty/
cuz everytime we raise our heads lucifer summons us to duty/

molly ain't here no more i got told/
she passed away yesterday after dusk/
i paused reflected felt my heart was cold/
unlike a spoilt brat couldn't manage to sulk/

we lost her last night after she lost her weight/
some say she looked fine just a month ago/
he says looks are deceiving for her health was faint/
she was dismantling deep inside like pieces of Lego/

he says she looked well in a taxi on their way to town/
he claims she ain't never been the same since december the 16th/
in and out of hospital her spirit was down/
last night her name was finally called & she slumped to the zenith/

her eldest brother passed away seven years ago/
after a short illness & a stint in a ward/
her elder brother passed away two years ago/
after a car-accident in a VW Golf/

now it's two sons left & family in mourning/
two january deaths & parents with questions/
a community losing daughters potential husbands sobbing/
a society needing prayer to alleviate the tension

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