I Have Seen These People In New York, London, Johannesburg And Lagos In One Day * Poem by Niki Nicholas Nkuna

Niki Nicholas Nkuna

Niki Nicholas Nkuna

BURGERSFORT (Leeufallei farm or Ga- Makwakwasi)

I Have Seen These People In New York, London, Johannesburg And Lagos In One Day *



Wearing nothing else but spikes, hooks and shoots protruding from their thorn clothes
We run away from their disgusting scent
As we would reject the sermon spiked with parables
We care not to know them well because we have a biased alibi

I have seen these people in New York, London, Johannesburg and Lagos in one day
We run away from their disgusting scent
Because we believed we would suffocate from digging deep
As we would from delving deep into the navel of the holy book
Our distance from them remains open and we never dared close it
The comical attraction is overwhelming
It’s cinematic on a quiet street

I have seen these people in New York, London, Johannesburg and Lagos in one day
When the cities are bustling we see them less because we have a lot to see
Their eyes are not stinging because the magnet is perturbed by criss crosses
The slight spikes and hooks’ effects deserve flying crumbs
Everything coming from above and below they received with both hands
We still care not to know them well because we have a biased alibi
We don’t know who they are, where do they come from, where do they live and where are they going

I have seen these people in New York, London, Johannesburg and Lagos in one day
They look the same; they eat flying and long sitting food and smell the same
They walk the same as if they are miners disgorging from the hellhole
Dragging their feet under the invisible weight of the sin luggage
We still care not to know them well because we have a biased alibi
If only we could spare a little effort we may know that they built the roads we walk on
They built the cities from which we cannot bear to detach ourselves

I have seen these people in New York, London, Johannesburg and Lagos in one day
We run away from their disgusting scent
If only we could spare a minute of tolerance we may know what good or bad news they have
For us, for other people or for themselves
They know the direction of salvation and hell
They have become to represent the tallest skyscraper in each of the cities
Overlooking all the happenings of the world with dangling ropes of spikes and hooks
With poor people, stupid ones, the lame, hobos, deaf and the blind hanging with their hands
All cured of their ailments and short comings en route to paradise

N Nkuna,12 June 2013

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Niki Nicholas Nkuna

Niki Nicholas Nkuna

BURGERSFORT (Leeufallei farm or Ga- Makwakwasi)
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