The Darkening Poem by Mpho Leteng

Thy art once ennobled; now hurtle obstreperously across the lilting brains of my children,
racked and ruined; warred to trounce,
bedeviled and vitiated for just an ounce!

But you won't get to fool us anymore,
For we've waited and watched with a steadfast will,
but the close nests were silent and still,
We waited and waited and waited until...

O! imam shall we say Amen?

Give us the old times back O Reeza!
Maybe then we can look not for what is not nor can be,
Maybe then we can teach vadiki and Vana how to write,
How to black their wobbling recites and black their trite.

O! imam shall we say Amen?

Maybe then we can drive this lost cattle home,
And young poets will step loftily with mein,
To grace the perpetuity of the poetry we've always known.

O! mukuru wanje; let there be poetry!