Killjoy

I am
kill
joy
I am
kill
joy

I am sad hope
dangling on a rope
I weave warm words
cause havoc to political heads
I ignite fire in frozen hearts
steer the mind into light
I possess poems more sober than sermons
move mountains
create fountains
I come like torrential rains
cleansing red stains
I am
killjoy
I kill joy

I soothe constant pain
from festering wounds
I poke
I am multitudes of drowned voices
crying out in silence
I lose not my temper
in times of violence
stubborn words surge through me
like a piercing knife
I am poetic rich
lose not my pitch
I spit rage on the page
I am ghetto/metropolitan/rural/oral/killjoy poet
sorrow is what I bring
red/dread//dead roots I sing
I hypnotise/demonise/legalise the truth
I see nothing fine
when the sun shines
I mock the poet
singing praise in parliament
I cause a predicament
reveal poverty
in our liberty
I am
killjoy
I am
kill
joy   

I rave until I kiss my grave
I rant till I run out of wealthy words
like a river gone dry
I sigh at the blooming lie of flowers
I appreciate/retaliate/dedicate
my poetry to liberate
and dissect my infatuation
I am
kill
joy 
I am killjoy 
I am killjoy  
I am kill
joy 
killjoy! 

 

Soweto

Womb of black souls
White with stains
Signs that welcome a stranger
Mean caution
Not coition
Traffic lights red at night
Just yield
& take flight
Sorrow & joy
Lead to you at sunset
Traffic jam of dreams
In the void
Come Friday
Come month end
Ghetto vibration staggering
Couples cuddle
Muggers lurk
The law lives on the loot
Before they shoot
Angelic bodies gyrate to kwaito music
Maskandi takes the lead
When glasses smash on walls
Between a lull of emergency sirens
No ambush
Not even derailing
Of the train dripping
Gravy
I cannot taste

 

You Used To Be . . .

You used to be
but are no more
glistening & glamorous
the glow in your face vanished
your rehearsed smile
tickles my veins no more
you, with your cocaine life
& stoned visions
you’ve deflowered yourself
in your haste to fame
my lips shiver no more
my tongue stammers no more
when I reveal myself to you
because you used to be . . .

 

Begging

begging has become a profession
unemployment our occupation
every soul wandering on city pavements
turning poverty into fiction
I always read words of pain
like graffiti scribbled on these sombre faces
& hidden smiles
sore lips & quivering bruised hands
who have learned the art
of lying without hurting
from those who speak diverse tongues
of the streets
of blistered hope & lynched dreams
I see them everywhere
For I am just a poet
Trudging their gravel road

 

The Blues I Know (Love)

The-the  blues
the-the blues I love
the-the blues I know
are taproot embedded
& dreadlocked without ganga
not drowning in babylon waters

the-the blues I know
the-the blues I love
are drum beating serenade
& bass strumming compassionate

the blues I love
the-the blues I know
are mine worker masculine digging
& licking waterfall sweat for fat cats

the-the blues I know
the-the blues I love
are plump breasts sagging
in the maize meal pounding

the-the blues I love
the-the blues I know
are ghetto knife plunging
in the heart throbbing

the-the blues I know
the-the blues I love
are nina simone miriam makeba moaning
in a fit of rage i ink the page

the-the blues I love
the-the blues i know
are watershed of bloodshed
melodious in a redemption song

the-the blues I know
the-the blues I love
are black on white on black on white
stabbed at the back of a rainbow nation
out (cut)

 

Natural Initiation

while other
would-be men
trudge the bushes
of the mountain tip
to be circumsized and
advised
by their elders
who know the thorny
road of life

you
woman
circumsized me
with the bitter
sweet taste of my blood
drawing images
on our lovebed
words whispered
shining
with compassion
into my ears
sinking in my heart
deeper than
the monotonous verse
of the initiator

so when I walked again where my feet walked
many years gone by
I could feel you
and I was born again
crowing of cocks
bleating of sheep
bellowing of bulls
birds singing on trees

when the sky’s tears
began to fall
thinking
alone in my room
searching deep
joyful memories
came to haunt me
my rooted past
I saw you coming
real
only fate setting us apart
I resisted an acean
welling in my eyes