Login
|
Join PoetrySoup
Home
Submit Poems
Login
Sign Up
Member Home
My Poems
My Quotes
My Profile & Settings
My Inboxes
My Outboxes
Soup Mail
Contest Results/Status
Contests
Poems
Poets
Famous Poems
Famous Poets
Dictionary
Types of Poems
Quotes
Short Stories
Articles
Forum
Blogs
Poem of the Day
New Poems
Resources
Syllable Counter
Anthology
Grammar Check
Greeting Card Maker
Classifieds
Member Area
Member Home
My Profile and Settings
My Poems
My Quotes
My Short Stories
My Articles
My Comments Inboxes
My Comments Outboxes
Soup Mail
Poetry Contests
Contest Results/Status
Followers
Poems of Poets I Follow
Friend Builder
Soup Social
Poetry Forum
New/Upcoming Features
The Wall
Soup Facebook Page
Who is Online
Link to Us
Member Poems
Poems - Top 100 New
Poems - Top 100 All-Time
Poems - Best
Poems - by Topic
Poems - New (All)
Poems - New (PM)
Poems - New by Poet
Poems - Random
Poems - Read
Poems - Unread
Member Poets
Poets - Best New
Poets - New
Poets - Top 100 Most Poems
Poets - Top 100 Most Poems Recent
Poets - Top 100 Community
Poets - Top 100 Contest
Famous Poems
Famous Poems - African American
Famous Poems - Best
Famous Poems - Classical
Famous Poems - English
Famous Poems - Haiku
Famous Poems - Love
Famous Poems - Short
Famous Poems - Top 100
Famous Poets
Famous Poets - Living
Famous Poets - Most Popular
Famous Poets - Top 100
Famous Poets - Best
Famous Poets - Women
Famous Poets - African American
Famous Poets - Beat
Famous Poets - Cinquain
Famous Poets - Classical
Famous Poets - English
Famous Poets - Haiku
Famous Poets - Hindi
Famous Poets - Jewish
Famous Poets - Love
Famous Poets - Metaphysical
Famous Poets - Modern
Famous Poets - Punjabi
Famous Poets - Romantic
Famous Poets - Spanish
Famous Poets - Suicidal
Famous Poets - Urdu
Famous Poets - War
Poetry Resources
Anagrams
Bible
Book Store
Character Counter
Cliché Finder
Poetry Clichés
Common Words
Copyright Information
Grammar
Grammar Checker
Homonym
Homophones
How to Write a Poem
Lyrics
Love Poem Generator
New Poetic Forms
Plagiarism Checker
Poetics
Poetry Art
Publishing
Random Word Generator
Spell Checker
Store
What is Good Poetry?
Word Counter
Email Poem
Your IP Address: 3.15.150.59
Your Email Address:
Required
Email Address Not Valid.
To Email Address:
Email Address Not Valid.
Required
Subject
Required
Personal Note:
Poem Title:
Poem
The Women (for the countless women, names unknown, who bore the brunt of Apartheid, and who fought the racist system at great cost to themselves and their families, and for my mother, Zubeida Moolla) Pregnant, your husband on the run, your daughter, a child, a few years old, they hauled you in, these brutish men, into the bowels of Apartheid's racist hell. They wanted information, you gave them nothing, these savage men, who skin happened to be lighter, and white was right in South Africa back then, but, you did not cower, you stood resolute, you, my mother, faced them down, their power, their 'racial superiority', their taunts, their threats. You, my mother, would not, could not break, You stood firm, you stood tall. You, like the countless mothers did not break, did not fall. You told me many things, of the pains, the struggles, the scraping for scraps, the desolation of separation from your beloved Tasneem and your beloved Azad, my elder sister and brother, whom I could not grow up with, your beloved children separated by time, by place, by monstrous Apartheid, by brutish men, whose skin just happened to be lighter. You told me many things, as I grew older, of the years in exile, of the winters that grew ever colder. You were a fighter, for a just cause, like countless other South African women, you sacrificed much, you suffered the pangs, of memories that cut into your bone, your marrow, you resisted a system, an ideology, brutal and callous and narrow. Yes, you lived to see freedom arrive, yet you suffered still, a family torn apart, and struggling to rebuild a life, all the while, nursing a void, that nothing could ever fill. I salute you, mother, as I salute the nameless mothers, the countless sisters, daughters, women of this land, who fought, sacrificing it all for taking a moral stand. I salute you, my mother, and though you have passed, your body interred in your beloved South African soil, you shall remain, within me, an ever-present reminder, of the cost of freedom, the struggles, the hunger, the toil. I salute you! (for the brave women of South Africa, of all colours, who fought against racial discrimination and Apartheid)
CAPTCHA Preview
Type the characters you see in the picture
Required