Where is Maria McCloy?
Who when and why
Shaped out of clay
Art turned a toy tends to cloy
I never met Maria McCloy
I’ve been to Yeoville’s Time Square
Walked down memory lane
The famous Rocky Street
Revelled my eyes
On the Rooftop Tandoori
I have met celebrities
Of yesteryear and years to come
Up and downtown
From the Jungle Connection to Newtown
Yet I have never met Maria
No
Not at Couch & Coffee
Nor the Horror Cafe
Not at Kippies’
Nor Melville’s famed Bassline
Joburg’s trendiest venues
That welcomed world class artists
My eyes never locked with hers
Nor do I recall crossing paths with her
Maybe I did
Being a popular poet at the time
I may have been too haughty
Or full of myself
To care or notice
Being famous corrupts
Who killed the Joburg Jamboree
And where is Maria?
Our enemies are our allies
They kiss and arm our killers
What is most striking is
She died at fifty
And I am about to turn fifty
If things go according to plan
A rumour doing the rounds is
This Anglophile black bastard
Should not see
Another birthday
Though strangers
This much I know is true
Culturally
Artistically
We have a wealth in common
Tusitala take care
Mbongeni Khumalo: Author of poetry collection apocrypha