North - South Road Poem by Frank Bana

Two-lane blacktop in the night
Breeze across the plains
Are there parades of beacons
On the low hills of Mochudi
Or stars with blinking eyes
Marking the quiet graves
Of those who died so young and fine?

Be careful, little child
Listen to the cowbells low
As the white relief trucks pass
Step back to the thorn trees
For sleepers hold the wheel -
Stand back from the tarmac-side!

Are those the sounds of Kwela
From the bars of Mahalapye
Refugees and swallows
Asleep in Francistown?
Are those human echoes
From pitiless Zimbabwe?
Asks Motsumi from his solitary
Rondavel in Maun.

Kudu leap the ribbon
A soda-can procession
Lines the roadside
Glares in moonlight
Winks up to the satellite

The North road leads to Cairo
The South road to the Cape
So I hear returning travellers tell
I am just a builder
On the midnight shoulder
And I am standing very still

Still between the headlights passing
Cricket melody unceasing
Is that the Marula fruit
Raining from the trees?
Don't walk the narrow line, my child
Too far with burning feet
In case your life becomes condemned
And never finds its peace.