NGT NGT Poet Elegy

Mandela

FNB Stadium, Johannesburg, on Tuesday, December 10


A tear silently crawled down my cheek
As eulogies fall and despair rise to the peak.
I see the crowd, the leaders, the well-wishers
Here they are gathered like never before-

Dark clouds have gathered in the East-
Old mounds overturn by the leash.
Dusty bones stir in their pale graves
While the bells hoarsely knell-

Told have been the tales
Gone have been the sales
of rights and freedoms
Through the fight of that man

twenty-seven lunar days
had his face been hidden pale
For the whip's caress
And the whiteman's address.

The troubles of the world
The weeps of the people-
The tears that baked their cheeks
He stood brave, conquered and freed

the newspapers, the radio:
"Hero dies aged 95, after a long illness."

the remarks of the people:
"Was he made for death? Our Mandela!"

Dark clouds gathered in the East-
Old mounds overturned by the leash.
Dusty bones stirred in their pale graves
While the bells hoarsely knelled-

He freed a humanity
He took his brother's strokes
Bled for his brother's locks
And aged in his selflessness and empathy.

Dark clouds gather in the East-
Marking that little patch of the Earth
Where has disappeared
Earth's greatest child, Mandela.

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Ako Henshaw February 2, 2014 at 11:36 AM Hi Gerald, this one... touching... really deep. there no other than him... he will be remembered as such. >>HENSHAW<<

Peter Dorr January 18, 2014 at 1:15 PM Mandela was not Jesus Christ, but he was one of the few politicians born in the twentieth century like Churchill, FDR, De Gaulle, Attlee, Nehru. called statesmen. A very moving poem Gerald.