Reborn
Again
Across the river
Home once more
Strangers in nativity
The most familiar place
Stomping ground of the gods
Had I known what I now know
Why would I waste my days
In Babylon of captivity?
When all I needed doing
Was stowaway
and crawl again
Back into the womb
And hideaway
from the “terrors of day”
And the seasons of craft
Of those that would us believe
The world would cease
existing without their weight
And yoke, then upon us
Till our mortal remains
Be consigned to the graves
not of our own making.
This world, we thought we own,
Until woken up,
To the dreaded wedding
Till only death dared us divorce
Our persisting shadows still taunting us
Without remorse nor parole.
Reborn
Again
Across the river
I long for life
Without the trappings of want
Nor hunger.
If love be sibling to hate
What need do we have
To blight the gift
-A love of ages-
In longing,
When we could’ve
All we wished
authored in song.
Though wounded of cords,
I still sing to myself,
Songs not of my own
But borrowed lyrics of ages
When we would be people
Among others.
Scars I carry again
not of our own making
But of the scavenging night
Masquerading as salvation day
Scarification of life, pretending liberation
When all know
The day is deferred
The rest is a parade of parodies
denying imagination
For that way lies dreams
Enticing vistas and enchanted spaces
Denying dreams.
We dare not imagine
Lest we begin again
To think ourselves
as kings and queens
In exchange of our servile lot:
Royalty is not for the poor
Service is not for the monarchs
Serfs are made, not born
an inherited
and curable disease – indeed.
Still I sing
Never to the dusk behind
But the dawn ahead
And the day after.
Makhanda Senzangakhona is the nome de guerre and pen name for Paul Oupa Serekele Ramachela. The author has retained the use of both names because he does not wish to be lost to his comrades nor become an alien to his family, and relations. Previously published poems, short stories and other narratives have appeared in the following publications, amongst others, Staff Rider, Rixaka, Mayibuye, Mrabulo and Black Letter Media-Poetrypotion.
The author has served in various roles in and outside SA; until recently he was a senior public servant.