featured poem: Sharp-ville by Obakeng

Obakeng | February 13th, 2013 | current issue, featured poem, poetry | No Comments

Poet Bio

Bathe in their blood
And be swathed in their flash they live in a sharp-ville
They browse the city at night
And moan to unborn souls that rest in pieces of contraceptives
And WE label them names
We burn flames in their hearts
And leave them in the cold every time we break their hearts
And leave permanent scars on their souls
And THEY reap what WE sow

I know good timber doesn’t grow with ease
But please, do not blindfold my mommy with your bandages
And imprison her in your pyramid schemes
Let me build a rhyme scheme
So you can skim through every syllable
Like the Pan African Congress they march in their Sharpeville
With FREEDOM, pass every blunt corner
That swallowed their virginity and brought misery
To the scenery of this concrete jungle

I bathe in their blood
And swathed in their flash
Moan their precious birth
And I celebrate their hideous death
Because I often wonder if they’ll ever hear me cry
The distance between them and I
Is a thin line between black and light
Thus I dream in black and light
And I whisper a rhyme to my shadow
So they could drop jaws to my perverted punch lines

We feed the full stomach of their spirits with lies
And they follow blindly like bunnies in an oven
So allow me to break the silence because talk is cheap
Speak till I smother to my own breath
That wrap around her neck
And slit her throat for me to shower in her warm blood
Because her motherland is a sharp-ville

Her eyes rein stars that crown her my angelic queen
And I that stupid cupid
Who broke her heart with my bow and arrow
I never realized I was dancing with my own shadow
So I coloured my feathers with her blood
And dressed in her precious skin
Observed as the face of the earth swallowed her
And I became that infant that now drowns in her weeping eyes.

Poet Bio

i am a Johannesburg theatre performer, started theatre poetry in 2008, and since then i have performed on many stages. i have won a number of slams, like house of hunger and the word n sound slams to name a few.

i have performed around the country, in pretoria, johannesburg, witbank and vereeniging. i have also performed in the country’s best theatres, like the joburg theatre’s fringe, the state theatre etc. i am well know in the campus poetry scene especially at UJ, Wits and VUT.

Click to rate this post!
[Total: 1 Average: 5]
(Visited 174 times, 1 visits today)