Do You Remember Poem by Phillip Nine Mafunga

This morning, I'd a look at our family photo
I reminisced on the things my childhood took for granted
We'd order, whip induced discipline n' manners
We therefore were naughty but well-mannered kids

I remembered all my clothes I ever had; in colour, all of them I can see
All the shoes, because I never had many pairs till in my twenties
Church day had its own pair of trousers and t-shirt; church was no choice
Every Saturday after dad's payday, was city centre visit day
But the pair of shoes was for all occasions: school, church n' town

I remember that we ne'er knew stress as kids
Neither could we've spelt it if we'd heard of it
Dad n' mum could just solve every problem, period
We worried ‘bout nothing outside of being denied play time
As boys in the hood, we shared all; candies, bikes, plastic balls, wire toys n' trouble
As brothers, we shared a blanket or blankets for the lucky ones; for we'd limited choices
We feared nothing else but home visits by our class teachers' n' the nurses at the clinic

We watched all football matches through the radio commentary
There was one TV set n' one telephone the whole street n' we cared less
Parade n' Prize magazines, The Sunday Mail n' The Herald gave us all the pictures of our football stars
Bruce Grobbelar was the biggest of them all in our imaginary outer space
The Big Mike, The Giant Haystacks, The Moon Dog Max, The Black Panther Tengende
There were scintillating stories of Tar Baby, the emergence of Kilimanjaro n' all
Phillip Nine Mafunga @25 May 2022