Kicked Off The Bus Poem by Neil Stewart McLeod

Kicked Off The Bus

Rating: 5.0


An Apartheid Story

If you visit Cape Town
There's one thing you must do,
Take a trip up Table Mountain
And there admire the view.
You have to take the Cable Car,
Which will swing and sway
Right to the top where you can see
Lion's Head and Table Bay.

When we toured Table Mountain
We went up by bus,
We left from the Market Square
My Mum and three of us.
The conductor did the knuckle roll
When he gave us our ticket
And every time he passed us by
We asked him to repeat it.

But on the bus a policeman
Was clearly not amused,
He approached my mother
And let us know his views.
"You get off the bus right now!
Get off at the next stop.
Get off I have to talk to you."
Said the Yarpie Cop.

We stood by the roadside,
Way above CapeTown
Half way up the mountainside
He dressed my mother down.
We stood there dumbfounded-
Just astonished plaintiffs,
"It is against the law" he said.
"To fraternize with the natives."

It's not like that now in Cape Town
There's still one thing you must do,
Take a trip up Table Mountain
And there admire the view.
You have to take the Cable Car
Which will swing and sway
Right to the top where you can see
Lion's Head and Table Bay.

Kicked Off The Bus
Saturday, June 2, 2018
Topic(s) of this poem: african lifestyle,police brutality
POET'S NOTES ABOUT THE POEM
In December 1958, my mother, Frances, and my two brothers and I visited Cape Town on the S.S. Rhodesia Castle. We had a sickening experience with a white South African Policeman which really soured our impression of the governing regime. On the bus ride to catch the cable car up to the top of Table Mountain, we were enjoying the knuckle roll the bus conductor could do, and we repeatedly asked him to show us his trick. The result was that a police officer asked us to get off the bus, and at the road side he told my mother off for talking to the African conductor.
COMMENTS OF THE POEM
Adrian Flett 02 July 2018

A great poem full of rhythm and shadows of the past. Thanks Adrian

1 0 Reply

Thank you Adrian, where is home for you now?

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Robert Murray Smith 02 June 2018

A poem that makes us laugh now. However, not so funny at the time. Actually, unbelievable.++10

1 0 Reply

I know it is unbelievable except for the act that it actually happened!

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Chinedu Dike 02 June 2018

Really an interesting narrative piece, well articulated and elegantly brought in good diction, with clarity of thought and mind. A beautiful creation. Thanks for sharing Neil and do remain enriched.

1 0 Reply

What a beautifully expressed comment, thank you!

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