Don't Borrow Tomorrow Poem by Sarah Mkhonza

Yesterday is lost and now
you are bankrupt. This bank
of time speaks like the hammer
of a judge.

Don't borrow tomorrow for you
squandered yesterday. Don't
go where you have not been
summoned. The early birds lost
the worm they caught. We know
for their beaks are open with
no worm on them.

Borrow today and swear to plant
what you have so deep the roots
will live to tell the story.
If they cremate you you will see
for yourself what an addition you
were to mother earth.

What was borrowed yesterday may not
make today rosy, for debt was never
a word to be repeated in a sing along
tune of the unwise. Make it a rule to
borrow, build and keep on building. Make
debt a word not a life motto.