Gone With Your Neatness Poem by Tebogo Angela Poen

I went to your house to clean the other day
And I found no gate as a means of entrance and exit
So I stepped into the jungle
The birds were singing outside
I wish you were around to listen to their songs
I remember how much you loved them and always spared the bread crumbles for them

Every tree was every reptile’s territory
Some of them I had never seen them in my years of living
I saw them playing chase and touch,
From branch to branch
The goats were feasting on the greens outside
I didn’t know you sowed more seeds of unknown trees
Indeed this is a jungle

I ignored them and stepped into the house
I found the security guards- the ants at the door
And they asked for my VIP ticket
I threatened to step on them.
That worked; they let me in
Your furniture was covered with dust
The spiders were having a hike on your walls
Their webs were everywhere
The rats were playing hide and seek on the roof,
And inside Your cupboards,
The cockroaches were having a party on the table,
Where you left your favourite mug sticky with sugar, covered with ants
Where you left some bread crumble dry and hard like biltong
Some cockroaches were having a disco in the zinc
Singing agekh’ ugogo (gran is not here)
The lizard was a deejay


I went to your house to clean the other day
As I reached into the drum for some water
It had rusted
So I thought maybe I should use the bucket
With it, fetch the water outside
But the frogs in there chased me out
They told me they had rented the place
I left them in peace

I went to your house to clean the other day
But the broom had leprosy
The mop had diarrhoea
And the feather dust had flue,
Said she couldn’t come in contact with dust as it might get worse
Your kitchen/dish cloths looked more like those that we use to scrub the floors with

Everything was doing as it pleased
Had they known how you kept your house clean and sparkling
Had they remembered how they couldn’t even come close to your door
I thought the fear they had at your presence
Will keep them away even in your absence
This is where I realised that when you left
You probably took your cleanliness with
And left the house to them as a will to please themselves with

This used to be a house of hymns
This house was once a church
A house I ran to when my parents and I were having a disagreement
A home where I learnt how to play diketo
A house built with sand and grey cement bricks
A home of refreshing shades from strong trees
Where every fruit came fresh and sweet from the trees
But now, the friendly, comforting trees I used to know
Have turned against me
We are now strangers
I guess I took too long to visit
Since you left

I went to your house to clean the other day
But I couldn’t touch anything
Your house has been turned into the hall of shame
I wondered if your house looked like this
How does the one at your place of rest looks like?
How does the one that your spirit lived in look like?
Probably the earthworms have consumed all of it
And left the wood (coffin) that we put it in empty
But in your remembrance, I will leave this house
And rather keep the one that my spirit dwells in clean
Till I also leave it,
And just like you, I will keep my spirit neat
And this is the neatness I will take with when I leave this world