The Pain.

 

It was not in far off millennia past,

when tyranny stalked the land,

 

it was but a few score decades ago,

when We the People were bludgeoned by the oppressors' hand.

 

It was not in far off millennia past,

when injustice slithered like slime,

 

it was but a few score decades ago,

when the colour of your skin was deemed a crime.

 

It was not in far off millennia past,

when brutalised shrieks of pain shattered the skies, 

 

it was but a few score decades ago,

when the soul of our strangled nation bellowed out tortured cries.

 

 

The Hope. 

 

It was not so far back,

when dreams of unshackled hope seized the day,

 

it was just a while back, 

when the hope of freedom from want in every heart did lay.

 

It was not so far back,

when We the People embraced the promise of brighter tomorrows,

 

it was just a while back,

when our collective ululation seemed to shake off the weight of centuries of sorrows.

 

It was not so far back, 

when Leaders with humane principles walked amongst us all,

 

it was just a while back,

when the promise of a just society rose from the rubble of Apartheid’s ignominious fall. 

 

 

The Betrayal.

 

It is now nothing but a shattered dream,

the burial of those hopes that honest fruit was what we would reap,

 

that promise of putting We the People first,

the vows of consigning economic injustice to the garbage heap. 

 

 

It is now nothing but a shattered dream,

as insatiable greed and soulless corruption pushes back that tantalising wave,

 

that promise of putting We the People first, 

now those vows extinguished, with the corpses interred in many a shallow grave.

 

 

It is now nothing but a shattered dream,

a desecration of the spirit of uBuntu so twisted and so mangled,

 

that promise of putting We the People first,

now the asphyxiating pain of the soul of our nation so mercilessly strangled. 

 

 

copyleft 2021

afzal moolla

This piece was first published on Afzal Moolla's personal blog.