Father Poem by Thabani Khumalo

There are things my father told me and I wondered – what?
He told me that they were going to come and rob me
Of everything I had before they encouraged me to work for riches.

He told me to watch and keep caution of my environments
For they would set snares to amputate my limbs,
And that would be before they told me to join the competition.

They would sap my energy and dry me up as a desiccate
Before they would ask me to train hard for the war
That they would also set me to without any arms.

He also told me that they would take all my inheritance
And give it to their children, destroy everything about me,
And then teach me how to chase after vanity; after money.