The Truth Behind The Lies Poem by Bianca Haw

I stand here, in a crowded room
My friend to my left and an enemy on my right.
I'm bumped, prodded and elbowed
A member of this herd, treated like a beast.
Except in this compound, our shepherd goes unseen.
Rumour has it that he is one of us, that's from the left
To my right, the whispers are of power and domination.
I've never known which to believe...
An ally turned rogue? Or a man on a mission?

Never mind the rumours, those are like myth
No one has ever seen him, or else no one has ever returned.
He hides behind his wall, impenetrable, impregnable
He is our leader, he says, his word is law
He does it for our own good and thinks only of us

Yet here we are.
Decimated, reduced to an outline and trapped in a cage of bones
Where have our choices led us?
We chose him, but he did not choose to save us
He chose to help himself.
Our very own Rhoodie, our self-appointed Vorster
We live in his shadow, children obscured by a parents' legs

His promises of riches, satisfaction and guaranteed results,
are overtaken by separatism, egalitarianism and class re-classification.
From both my right and my left, complaints can be overheard
No one wanted an outright, tyrannical leader,
No one wanted a zoo of Secrets and Lies.

I look towards the despondent faces of the people to my right,
The anguished features on my companions to the left.
I think of this man, our commander...
I ask myself why our world has become what it is?
I wonder at how a human being, like me,
like those survivors on the left and on the right the followers,
can look like us, talk like us and walk like us,
And yet be so different, like fire and water.
A wolf disguised as a sheep and feeding at his leisure.

He does not defend us, nor speak to us
His actions cannot be justified nor his thoughts reconciled.
He is a monster, a barbarian sent to finish us off.
Children call him Hitler, but the comparison is inadequate.
Some call him Wikus,
but I call him...
Big Brother