deepundergroundpoetry.com
A Summer Day in the Township (South Africa 1985)
Skeletal dogs with torn leather hides
Slink past the blackened carcasses of cars,
Shrouded by early morning dust and engine fumes;
Past battle-scarred chickens picking at craters in the street,
Between rows of commuters
Who shuffle and squeeze into the bowels of buses.
Crossroad hawkers sit guarding eggs on blankets,
Pyramids of bruised apples between their knees,
And shacks, stacked back to back,
Support naked pumpkins tanning on tin roofs.
Radios throb like disembodied pacemakers,
Over splashes of red on blistered roadsides
That sing of bullets and melting rubber flash:
The post-tribal rhythm of beating batons
And chorus of sirens.
A tin-can football rattles like teeth on cement,
Ignored by the skeletal dogs with tongues of fire
That crouch to lick their smouldering wounds.
And far across the rutted landscape, beyond the smoky funnels
Rise tower of mirrored glass, like cocked fingers,
Where aerosol cans of cream or mace
Can be employed without discrimination.
Slink past the blackened carcasses of cars,
Shrouded by early morning dust and engine fumes;
Past battle-scarred chickens picking at craters in the street,
Between rows of commuters
Who shuffle and squeeze into the bowels of buses.
Crossroad hawkers sit guarding eggs on blankets,
Pyramids of bruised apples between their knees,
And shacks, stacked back to back,
Support naked pumpkins tanning on tin roofs.
Radios throb like disembodied pacemakers,
Over splashes of red on blistered roadsides
That sing of bullets and melting rubber flash:
The post-tribal rhythm of beating batons
And chorus of sirens.
A tin-can football rattles like teeth on cement,
Ignored by the skeletal dogs with tongues of fire
That crouch to lick their smouldering wounds.
And far across the rutted landscape, beyond the smoky funnels
Rise tower of mirrored glass, like cocked fingers,
Where aerosol cans of cream or mace
Can be employed without discrimination.
Published 30th Sep 2012
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30th Sep 2012 5:20am
Why is there discrimination Paragon,
Does anyone actually know...
Stark write!
Best wishes
Ricecake
Does anyone actually know...
Stark write!
Best wishes
Ricecake
1st Oct 2012 1:39am
1st Oct 2012 4:06pm
Very descriptive and lots of color; felt like I was there.
I think Paragon has a different connotation when he used discrimination. Could be just wrong choice of words...:)
I think Paragon has a different connotation when he used discrimination. Could be just wrong choice of words...:)
3rd Oct 2012 6:12am
Thanks EngrVV for your kind comments.
The words "employed" and "discrimination" are meant to have a double meaning: The cream (luxury) or mace (violence) could both be 'used' (employed)by White South Africans without consequences. Second meaning: Black South Africans could not be employed due to racial discrimination.
The words "employed" and "discrimination" are meant to have a double meaning: The cream (luxury) or mace (violence) could both be 'used' (employed)by White South Africans without consequences. Second meaning: Black South Africans could not be employed due to racial discrimination.