We May Be Cheerful Poem by Thabani Khumalo

We may be cheerful in what is agreed upon to being cheer.
We are allowed to eccentrically cheer ourselves
in all the ways prescribed for what they refer to as joy.

My relatives!
we are able to chase after vain pleasures
and seek after happiness by acting according to our impossible whims -
but can we appraise the single thought that
each and every one of us in our personalities
are one day going to collapse and depart this life?

They will bury us underground and begin
to act as though they cannot access our souls any more.
Though we may depart the life of the earth in this fashion,
I am sure that we are going to leave the world
in this regard unless we come to truly see.