Lefatshe La Fela, Bophelo ba Thoma.

there is little light

in this room

day-break

the sun escapes

one distant voice

my love, they sing

a song of happiness

my love, i hear

today here

that smile of morning breath

it is now in me

it is my electricity

i am here

The birth of my morning

Written in the horizon

Before dawn, in the skies

See the work I owe

Taken from me

By the hands of drugs

Belief and greed

Of dreams.

Waiting has not helped me

the little learning of older years

Always slipping

I will do it

I can't do it

A thousand what ifs

Hover, butterfly,

With every open eye.

Breathes of ancestors

That live with me

Can't hear them enough

Always history of the country

In the streets, inside me

in the birds that fly around me

Always fleeing Babylon

But never leaving it.

I offer this fire

this air

To see calmer days

and question less

insect more

to be done

said

let go

after the many years

tree roots rot

mahogony eyes smile

Smile under the sun

there's always a question

to be asked

ignored

the many mouths

of dead nobodies

blow the trombone of hope

every day a question

the child of yesterday

sings in hearts

hearts older than books

& water in the nile

the i must die

rise

there's always a memory

a gaping wound of thought

who will not heed

their splattered prophecy

beginning with a house number?

numbers & dead letters

shane cooper hums it

bashes them out of history

there's always a smell

a taste that makes sickness

signs & symbols incoherent

tolokis of mourning

no nation can heal

only natural disaster

only pandemic

only the coltrane quintet

& the defiance of the slave

the slave is borne

from gore to white shirt lies

lilacs & cicadas in their eyes

written out in the sky

there's always that old person

who watches the youth dance

& leaks of causal wisdom

when the song ends

there's always that one line

that one time

(aftertastes of addictions & lies where tongues bleed remains here anticipatory trees even yellow mangoes dream hum rum bust drum stretch freedom's hands...)

yes self must die earth to rebirth years of missed felicities kitchen secrets scents of sensations where sun kisses soil to feel buddah's kiss

(clouds & seas will topple governments.. hold on, find something to love.. hold on.. listen to love.. )

no but we want to live in heaps of luxuries death to old cities tailored by our salaries   the anthropocene is property shouts Miles's Flamenco Sketches Magadlela's eerie sketches it will not be other people that heal us nor will currencies

Lead me to this palace

Drunk on your bosom

My mouth is a raging goblet

Your slaved flesh on mine

Sinking into you

Ganja bites Hess

Deep in the spirit

#play

kiss me

strip you

let's grind fast

then burn slow.

(there's other worlds-stateless countries in our deepest desires,

bare skin with its own freedom)

inside us

do you like to dance?

grab mee

tongue love

tongue hug.

lend me a home

in your mouth

a million stars

hairs in my mouth

Stick on me

Moan. Bawl with joy

the music of ecstasy

the smell of lust

breaks me down

break me

dissolve in me

we have to hold hands , touch

dance with our shadows, together

civilizations scream

we have to hold hands, touch

dance with our shadows, together 

right there across Satan’s pit

the last dance of the night

the night begins here

so touch children and parent

rejoice unloved one

all we have is each other

what are we left with?

we have to touch, hold hands

it is this world of a few

that has killed so many

it’s not waves

it is wails from the oceans

my comrades say

martyrs, messiahs

we don’t need you anymore

it is a world we dream of

that comes from the drums, the wounds

we breathe with the birds

we live with ghosts

martyrs, messiahs

battles of ideas

left a mark

deep in the heart

the child who sings

becomes the city that bleeds

deep in the heart

there remains love

                                     cities of terror

                                     petals in parks

                                     deep in the heart

                                     remains

                                     ashes,

                                     ashes,