they flew into our
land like locusts
and invaded our
our markets
cutting and chewing
any piece job
in South African
job market
these ones
didn’t bother
knocking on
border gates,
through bribes,
they bought
border gate
management officials
who smiled at
the sight of
golden papers,
colour-blind to
injustice they
caused masses
of loyal citizens!
foreign nationals
flocked into our
borders magically:
they flashed golden
papers in the eyes
of border gate officials
and turned them
into chirping bats
that salivated and
killed a good fortune!
some prawled in like
a pride of starving lions
hunting for any
mean or meaty
job while others
pounced on any
piece job they
eyed in the market
field
yes, they over harvested
our jobs in the market field
leaving no single grain
to raise the head in the next rain,
when we raise placards
in the air and toyi-toyi
for job scarcities
in the big cities,
they unleash capped
shepherd dogs
on us to teach
us a good lesson!
Mr. President,
Enough is enough
we shall not fold
our wings and watch
other rival birds
when snatching
livelihoods from
our mouths to
feed their own
starving chicks
back home!
some have turned
our once safe streets
into jungles stealing
and raping our kids
while men and women
in blue dose as they
shut their eyes with eye-lids
today a human being
goes missing like a cow
and to this nonsense
we are forced to bow
like priests burning an incense
while they demolish our well being!
let all undocumented visitors
go back home by deportation
through free transportation
for they overstayed as visitors
we’ve got no enough stools
nor overalls & working tools
some cheap labored men are hired
to work for their livelihoods in gardens
but turn our homesteads into lions’ dens
where the fatherless kids are sired!
others came in the name of the Lord
brandishing the Holy Book in the air
while in secret places they grope our daughters a lot
fork frying them while holding onto the chair!
we’re sick and tired of playing dead
while heartless beings skin our country alive
like a guinea pig on a theatrical bed
seeking to harvest honeyful jobs from its hive!
Mr. President
tell them to peacefully go
without declaration of war
nor any incident
why leave the citizens’ simmering anger
to boil and spill over into searing danger?
Amos Tebeila is published novel and poetry author and musician who resides in Middelburg, Mpumalanga province, South Africa.