Post-Apartheid Poem by Frank Bana

Those with healthy limbs and years of school
Those sheltered under plastic sheets and tin:
Life starts with heartbeats, really nothing more -
Apartheid of the wealthy and the poor.

Those with jobs providing ARVs
The child denied a basic welfare grant:
A random act becomes a lasting fate -
Apartheid of the bureaucratic state.

Those who were slain when soldiers crossed the line
Exiles surviving to return and vote:
Some felled by sudden shots in gambling rooms -
Apartheid of the lucky and the doomed.

Those knowing love and sunlight in their days
Those sleeping in the cells of solitude:
The loneliness within a life apart -
Apartheid of the hurt and healing heart.

A woman traces childhood scars and tears
A man cries, 'liberation once was pure! ':
The wounds of rape and cruelly selfish schemes -
Apartheid of the lost and living dreams.