Friday, January 10, 2014

Poetry from Swaziland part 4



Tableau: driving past a parlour
Gugu Mdluli
August 2, 2011 at 3:27pm
In a staggering line, they walk
An Asian mob of about 8 men
Tightly knit
Arm-in-arm almost.
A tableau,
apart from the clamouring train of traffic
beyond the wall.
Grave, they walk.
Disarmed by

The little middle-aged woman
Newly barren
Among men.

She, her face a furious red
With the force of her bewildered
Tears. Worldless. She
Grips for life the hands nearest to hers.

The little band soldiers on
Wordless.

A crumbling mother and her 8-man buttress
Stagger to the line of waiting cars.

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