Beautiful Pain Poem by Thabani Khumalo

Twinkle twinkle little star
Come right down and shine your light
I reminisce now bygone days
And bygone days were all awful days.

Twinkle twinkle little star
Come right down and light my life
When we schooled we're trained as dogs
And pedigree was on tutors' guides.

Shine that light before it's too long
Against the times, the tick tock hands
That once we're young and then too old
Life wastes out like the winter's rain.

How dead were they in their hearts of stone
With stormy brains and their meanest thoughts
That they picked me out for the crucifixion?
O what a life to taunt and waste.

We're taught to pray and yell at the clouds
And homeboys now are young and mad
From prison breaks, many boys have died
But many boys now are mad-house-incurred.

The laws of of life that the elders gave
Us back then were to break their laws
So as outlaws now, we're good for jail
And the lame ‘yes men' given ride to the top.

Wrinkle wrinkle little scar
How deep your wound is really gonna go?
Through every gulp that my lung breathes
Everyday i live is tour of hell.

Still this i keep cuz this i love
The pain that gives me things to say
And i speak right words to heart of god
And he sees how short is his respite time.