Zuma - Ville Poem by Alistair Plint

A Zebra lives in my road
on the corner a gorilla counts horses
Birds sing songs of love on the roof
of a Lion's mud-hut home. Where I live a
Cheetah outruns a Kudu, to the beat
of an African drum,
Kids are stepping in elephant dung.

People laugh at this -
my African drum.

I smile in the knowledge that
it is this or…

A dealer lives on my road
On the corner, police count bribes;
prostitutes sing words of lust on the palace
roof of the president's castle. Where I live a
murderer outruns a hijacker, to the beat
of a rapist's hum,
I'm appalled by the bullet, in a 10 year lung.

People die at this -
the beat of the real African drum.