Townships...
An isle of hopelesness
Filled with scattered sheds
Of cold ironed plates
And cardboarded walls
On the hills of dryness
No escape it lets
Out of these invisible gates
Where deemness calls
Out of the ground sprout
Six square metered places
Of poverty
Watered by false impressions
Arisen out of dead sandy doubt
New old problem it faces
It shows so overtly
In the life it fashions
Dry bare palm trees
Yellowish brown grass
So this world is fulfilled
Into complete scarcity
Outside sees
None of this 'helpless' mass
Whom are bone chilled
Left overs for some charity
Yet in all misery met
There is laughter so bright
Mocking all disillusions
Too easily often made
In strength it is set
To survive in dim light
Finding many solutions
Out of the nightmare to be awaked
Great waves will come
Flood over the isle
Washing away Apartheid's injustice
To bring equality
October 22, 2002