Exposed belly buttons and naked knees.
Dusty,
Small,
Short,
Vagabond!
The ghetto street embellished with clamors of tin and coordinated jumps,
Screams of ‘Chicago! Chicago! Letha ama tin!!!’
Hunger and the fullness of a childhood spent in the dusty ghetto street.
A street forlorn of names,
A place of beautiful arms, children, legs, kaffir hair, hungry smiles, love.
These are daughters,
daughters of the dust.
Chicago!
Chicago!
Africa…
Africa…
Mapule Mohulatsi is a daughter, dancer, speaker, thought masturbator, of the dust. (SA)
this poem appears in our print quarterly number eight, Dear South Africa.
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