Witwatersrand Poems | Examples

Treasure

This is a story from the history pages
Where diamonds were found
In the Kimberly hole 
And when its wealth was extolled 
To Johannesburg next the road would lead
To the fields of gold they next would seek
On Witwatersrand main reef
And when the seam was mined and spent 
To Rustenburg the miners went
For platinum to sink drilling shaft's 

South Africa's history belies its earth
Where empires came to mine for wealth 
Now all that stand are plots of land
Are rusty head gear and mining dumps 

Gone are the conveyor belts
And refinery smoke
And the mining folk
Where hard hats with torch attached
Shone upon the fossil rock

Now what replaced the mining rush
Is Johannesburg's now a bed of crime
And Kimberly is now a 1 horse town 
If truth be told 
All that glistened isn't gold 
And diamonds aren't forever 
When the mining stops 
And nothing is left