I Have Seen Pain Poem by Thabitha Marakalala

I have seen pain

I grew up hearing gunshots
And tormenting screams
That still haunt my dreams
I have seen dusk devouring faces of petrified kids
Watching their mothers being strangled in sheets
Too young to understand
That this is how
The end begins.

After brutally reapeted rapes
Cracked fist marked their faces
Red is The colour of The rain
The only sound was that of tears
The only breath was that of heart piercing pain
That still strikes my heart over and over again
My friend I have seen pain

I have seen man with dead souls
Heartless almost like blood thirsty merciless zombies
With butcher knives and machetes
Holding Aks like Guiters
M9s like toy guns
The only emotion painted on their faces
Is that of an evil angel of death.
It's devotion is to rip someone's breath
To inflict pain that will never see an end

I have seen mothers crying blood tears for their loved ones
begging the sky to swallow them whole
The pain way too much for a human soul to can bear
Maybe in death it will all disappear.
Have you ever heard a voice of a baby crying for its mother.
thursting to be in those soft, caress arms
safe and warms
in them it knows it is home
Believe me I have seen pain

Have you ever seen fathers powerless
So defeated
Left with no meaning to their names
They've just witnessed their sons being slight like pigs
why did the sun allow him to see all this.
Now they're going to slowly kiss the death of pain
And motherland will be left with a permanent stain
Will they ever rest in peace?

I have seen rivers flowing with blood
I have seen corpse scattering the land
Like God has decided to give mankind an end..
I have seen things I can't say
Some can make me choke on ny own breath
before I can even think the words
My brother I have seen pain..

Tbt-M