Long Teargas Poems

MEMORIES OF WAR 


In prison we turmoiled 
packed up cards to fall 
whilst they sucked 
genitals like bonbons 
a quartz on a table
gleamed its knowing

War torn ghettos with 
swollen stomachs 
stretched wide, auras 
shattered, splintered...

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If this is freedom take me to Robinson Island

When shall we again sing the redemption songs?
The strings of freedom are long forgotten in my nation
Injustice is their system and we pledge to resistance
The freedom our...

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When the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., said “I have a dream,” we all nodded and shouted sharing our feelings because his dream was the same as all those who lived under oppression. When...

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Where were you when i lived on gunshots and teargas, 
When the violence intensified and put fear on us, 
When the police brutality coasted me a friend and my face, 
When the eviction notice saw...

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Their hands raise with ours and for a moment we are all standing in perfect unity, every set of fingers curled in anger and defiance - and then they throw the tear gas.

Which is rich,
Because...

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One day,I stood on the mountain
Watching security forces using force to disperse demonstrators
Who had gathered in  the commercial capital___
Blocked off traffic to a large part of the city:
To protest against their leaders' prolonged years...

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For the chance to learn in plain English
Be afforded equal opportunity to accomplish
For a father to dream better for his son, how I wish
For a people to destroy another’s culture, 
how selfish

When the world summarily...

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All day I stared at the blank world
And could not tell 
The words invisible in my hell
I waited for the sounds of emergency
The blinking eyes and flashing red
The petals crushed upon the ground
I waited in...

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Life is a life
 Driving home I nearly hit a rabbit
braked hard and the can of lager fell out of my hand.
We country folk drinks a lot; the police never stop you
unless you drive off...

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I did'nt deserve to watch my mom break down over nerves
I did'nt deserve for nightly my dads sleep to be disturbed
I did'nt deserve for life to be the judge and jury's words
I did'nt deserve prison...

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Tomorrow where are you ?

I am a child of mzansi, 
A child of a nation raised by a struggle of apartheid, as I emerge as a wound 
Meant to glister, advertising the anguish of my...

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These footsteps are a dotted line
A pulsating heartbeat on a timeline
Your curiosity fills in the blank spots
Guessing which stereotype‘s my blind spot

You can plot a healthy graph from my bounce
I own the future today ‘cos,...

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Some knew him,
Some knew him not,
We all knew him somehow;
Nobody knew what he had become,
What he had always been,
Digital platforms were closed
On towards evening
And in the next evening,
There was nothing but
Teargas from the sky;
It was...

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His musings in paper and ink
have led him to the dungeons. Rusty
iron bars, smell of rats,
and cold wars surround him.
His people see through their leaders,
like water through the glass. Nothing
can stop them now- verses of...

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Red and blue lights in the night
A black and white drifting on rights
Empty hearts galvanized
Open palms weaponized
Hope flushing down the drain
Flooded by spits of acid rain
Voices rise in missiles and teargas
What is being said is...

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