BLACK TO BASICS
(for Thabo Lehlongwa)
Birth is bereavement
Black boys born poor and penniless
Racing matchstick boats
On dusty township pavements
Recruited playing marbles
To fight life and death struggles
Taking a gamble at each passing moment
We are the clever ones
Bunking classes
Leaving at lunch break
Before the church bell rang school out
Because the chalkboard was
A mess of political corrections
It was the politicians
Who betrayed us
Young ghetto poets calling for change
But the world stayed the same
Growing older and wiser
Now we know
We are the ones who got short-changed
Mbongeni Khumalo: Author of the poetry collection apocrypha