Bojosi Ditshwele Poet Free verse

The land of TSIETSAMOTSWANA

Our past vividly pictured
on the skeletal roof 
of a once perfectly thatched 
Mokgoro now helplessly kept in place 
by worn out Kgobati ties 
and tired pillars carved decades ago
from strong Morukuru trees

Through famines we survived
tilling the barren land for food
digging for water from a sleeping river
to keep alive the last of our dying cattle
we scrabbled for fruits the wild provided
we hunted rabbits and birds for delicacy 

There is some hope growing now 
in the gathering of rain clouds above
that the rivers will soon flow again
that the land will grow more fertile
even the bones of ancestors 
sleeping at Sekgolokgothuma remnants 
have started to breathe life

Our dreams beautifully painted 
on the colourful landscape of spring
of flowering grasses embraced by bees
and a forest of sprouting Mopipi trees 
filling the air with their pungent scent
stretching from Lenganeng
to Ga-Rantshiane hills 
and down to Magoleng 
along the peripheries of Taung river

This is Tsietsamotswana
the place where our dreams were incubated 
inside houses built of strong walls 
from a concrete of mud and cow dung
and neatly thatched with grass
harvested from Dikhuting floodplains...

♡Like0

Share Poem

---

Post Comments

Poetrysoup is an environment of encouragement and growth so only provide specific positive comments that indicate what you appreciate about the poem. Negative comments will result your account being banned.

Please Login to post a comment

Alison A Smith nee Howarth September 14, 2026 at 3:33 AM A vivid, dignified free-verse portrait of endurance, ancestry, and renewal. The poem’s unhurried, image-rich movement lets Tsietsamotswana emerge not merely as a place but as a living inheritance—held in its homes, rivers, trees, animals, and remembered labour. Particularly moving is the progression from skeletal thatch and famine to rain clouds, spring growth, and ancestors “breath[ing] life,” which gives the landscape both historical depth and hard-won hope. Bojosi Ditshwele September 14, 2026 at 3:16 PM Thank you for your sweet comment ..