Seeking The Revenge Of The Toughest Gods Poem by Sarah Mkhonza

What will we do now that we have crowned them with glory
These who have plotted to rule us day and night,
And not rest till our strength is poured outside,
And our blood warms the spears of legends old,
With us just pleading for the avenger of the weak,
Who is the toughest of all the gods who hears,
Our plea as we repeat it night after night

Help us for we repeat a refrain in pain,
Those who had teeth sharper that fangs,
Who filled our bodies till they sang,
Then they beat on us with the loudest bang,
And told us in our faces that we would hang.
On the walls of the roughest of prisons.
Help us as we spell out their crime
That our sons sit in a jail they built,
To fill with a quarter of innocent souls.

They have not spared us from decree after decree,
Sending the bearer of bad news to out steps,
Saying we should walk in single file,
Into the prisons which send them in one song,
Singing to the bank to fatten their accounts,

We know they will be raging and fuming,
When the final decree is sent out,
Saying a nation cannot send all its son,
To prisons which enrich the rich only,
While sapping the strength of the nation,
By sending to jail a boy who sniffed a joint.


Help us for we repeat a refrain in pain,
Those who had teeth sharper that fangs,
Who filled our bodies till they sang,
Then they beat on us with the loudest bang,
And told us in our faces that we would hang.
On the wall of the roughest of prisons.
Help us as we spell out their crime,
While our sons sit in a jail they built,
To keep full with half innocent souls.

When you hear us oh gods know one thing,
That they hate us is clear as the day,
For what can we do on this earth where we live
Without our fathers who bore us,
Who sit in goal looking at the sky,
Wondering when you will answer their call.