Sunday 26 June 2016

(A poem with the title at the end)


we are born into this
humbling mortality
cruel reality
bereaved voices echo
hollow

too soon you say
too soon
but death knows no time
and dying is not
an end

love remains
untainted
and untouched
by the passing
and the pain

we remain
and we remember
we shed our tears
and keep alive
the glowing ember

alive forever in cherished reverie
embrace the memory
celebrate the bravery
and let us raise our voices
as we elevate his spirit

TO DYLAN!

Tuesday 26 April 2016

DOM DOM


And so my brothers and sisters
We now gather to mourn the loss
Of a still-born fiction – freedom
Murdered by negotiation
And a complicit inaction
That has allowed the gruesome
To become another symptom
Of a much more deadly problem

Dom dom, dom dom
Dom dom gekom

We were sold the lie of freedom
We were told to die for freedom
Dom en mak geraak en gekraak
Ons staak in die naam van freedom

Dom dom, kak dom
Dom dom, freedom

Vir vier honderd jaar, afgedruk
Nog steeds ekonomies verdruk
Voorouers en kinders vermoor
Trane oorspoel die metafoor
Terwyl die warme bloed nog loop
Blus dit stadig die vuur van hoop
Koppe sak en hande gevou
Met ons oë styf toe gedruk

Dom dom, dom dom
Dom dom gekom

We were sold the lie of freedom
We were told to die for freedom
Dom en mak geraak en gekraak
Ons staak in die naam van freedom

Dom dom, kak dom
Dom dom, freedom

Buried in an unmarked grave
Just another time-card slave
Assaulted until we succumb
Our birthright returned – a slum
Is this all that we could become
Isolated, scared and numb
Our liberation discarded
Abandoned in the gutter
Dom dom, dom dom
Dom dom gekom

We were sold the lie of freedom
We were told to die for freedom
Dom en mak geraak en gekraak
Ons staak in die naam van freedom

Dom dom, kak dom
Dom dom, freedom

Ek is baie lankal mooi gatvol
Van al die valsheid en bedrog
Die leuens van ‘n witman se god
In ‘n ingevoerde bybel
Wat verlossing net belowe
In die dood en nie op aarde
Die lewe raak al hoe swaarder
Lewenstwis sonder genade

Dom dom, dom dom
Dom dom gekom

We were sold the lie of freedom
We were told to die for freedom
Dom en mak geraak en gekraak
Ons staak in die naam van freedom

Dom dom, kak dom
Dom dom, freedom.