(good-bye Hugh)
Untouchable and out of touch
It’s only yesterday that I learnt
Of your untimely demise many years ago
The first & last time I met you
Was at the Zabalaza Poetry Festival
-the ZPF-
Or was it the Zanu-PF?
That was over two decades ago
I can still recall
Your firm handshake & warm embrace
Almost crushing me in a tight grip
Like a python
Giant of a 7 year Bandit
That you are
Your better half oggling you
In a half-suppressed smile
Down to earth and self-effacing
Poet in the official programme
You rather chose to sit with us
In the audience
Than go on stage with the rest
Devotee to an Idol
I sat at your feet
As you attentively listened to me
Telling you how touched I was
Reading your prison diaries
And I never saw you again
A few months ago
I met your daughter Thandi
I found her somewhat aloof
Not giving away much
Holding back her family name
Like a closely-guarded secret
Right or wrongly so
Considering that it was one of my acts
Of indiscrrtion
That led me to make a public confession
Of how my mother so loved
The music of PJ Powers
So much she named my younger sister
Thandeka
The loved & loveable one
It back-fired
She lost her job at the NHLS
-the National Health Laboratory Service-
Fired for defying her supervisors
And daring to write her university exams
Without being granted a study leave
And she passed regardless
To this day UNISA still refuses
To confer the degree
Much to the chagrin of the teaching staff
Where thoughtlessness reigns supreme
Factional politics play out in the lecture hall
And scientific questions are resolved
By a simple show of hand
Mbongeni Khumalo is the author of Apocrypha, a poetry collection.