My
poetry campaign
Fell
on the days
Where
the world’s most powerful cameras
Were
held outside hospital gates
Held
with the precision of a gunman
Waiting
for his target
Waiting
to shoot
The
last blink of a legend
Before
the earth takes him from us
Microphones
artistically extended like Mpondo sticks at Marikana
Hungry
for any word from his daughters
Who
called it violence?
Only
the cameraman knew that his target
Was
as intense as the soldiers at war
Only
this time it was not ‘shoot to kill’
It was to shoot for the love of a man held so dear
To
capture a moment that belongs not only to this generation
A
moment too great to slip quietly
This
was a gift for generations
Just
as the man has been a gift to a generation
My
poetry campaign
Falls
on the days where scribes, story-tellers
In
two continents
Sat
waiting outside hospital gates
One
for the end of a great story
Another
for the birth of a prince
Whose
former fathers
once
stripped off the royalty of the father
of
the grey-haired-great-man lying in hospital
Invincible
The
master of his own destiny
The
little prince is born
Angelic
in nature as all babies
With
an inheritance like no other baby
With
a heritage that looks like yin and yang
I
sit
In
South Africa
In
a town called East London
Writing
in the language the little prince will one day speak
And
wonder if the prince will one day read these words
When
I am fifty or sixty
What
would I want the prince to know?
That
on Mandela’s 95th birthday my poetry reached its first five thousand
milestone?
That
five days later the prince was born and I received a healthy sum for my poetry
from England?
That
South African born Jeanette Kruger was that famous donor?
That
our money was called the Kruger Rand?
What
would I want the prince to know?
With
the millions of messages he has received
With
the zillions of information that will one day be his to sort through
Will
he find the poem that will always be as old as he is?
©
siki dlanga
22
July 2013
One
day when you’re looking wondering when the prince of England was born remember
it was on this date.
Give my campaign some royal treatment. I only have 19 days left to make it count! www.thundafund.com/sikidlanga
