The Decree Poem by Thabani Khumalo

Somehow the day seemed lazed and slow,
I stopped and gazed and saw no toil,
Easiness to the eyes of poets' door
As boys and girls set down on the soil.
So on I looked and saw no change
But still I felt like nibbling out
For deep within was something taunting.

The sun went down behind the mall,
That the winter night could take its tall
And the poets citing could tell no tale
Of shadows moving - the silhouettes slow.
The mood then, changed before the sunset moon
That, to this very day, I can hear the moan.

From way above the parliament's call;
The king's decree was set for us
And the machine gun was, again, observed
In Denneboom by a strong man's arm;
We ran from a soldier in camouflage green.