One Day (A Song) Poem by Frank Bana

I never expected to live so long
In those shell-shocked years when lymphoma came
In the proliferate shadow of the nuclear bomb
With wars fanning out like toxic flowers
It was hard to believe and grow up tall
Without a shield or a place to fall.

I never thought I'd live to see
The days of crowds so dense and wild
In processionals of liberty
Nelson Mandela strolling free
Lands governed by people, not big men
Exulting the power of ballot and pen.

I'm still waiting to walk that country of dreams
Where no child stays hungry, no baby weeps
While the waiting is longer than it seems
The poems in my head will send me to sleep

I never thought to live so long
With the taunts and screams assailing us
The acts of violence carrying on
And it threatened the heart, to look around
And see the mass of impunity
But I held my immunity, tight and strong

In the certainty that you would come
And one day listen to my song.