An elegy for South Africa

Weep South Africa
as you are no longer my country
and I live here
as if I am
from another planet

as part of a small minority
in a country where dark Africa
declares murderers as heroes
and act like barbarians
and dance and scream.

At a time the orange, white and blue
streamed proud over you
and people at work,
school to parliament
bended their knees to God

who was their supreme leader
right through hordes
at blood river,
the onslaught of the British Empire

and with God on our side
we would quarter
for nobody and nothing.

Our own culture flowered,
children went through schools
right through university
to distinguish themselves
and you could even leave the doors unlocked,
could make a living somewhere,
the police were a servant and a friend
and we under our own rule.

How many times our ancestors
tried to teach other people of God,
distributed medicine and food
and we even faced
the communists and Cubans in Angola,

till on a day a man
for the wide world a hero,
out of our own ranks betrayed his brothers
and he laid the whole country lame
and didn’t sell it out,
but rather gave it away.

Today incompetents are everywhere in control
of state departments
right through into the parliament,
money is squandered,
a whole generation
through their own choosing
did not receive any school education,
whites are affirmed and impoverished by the law
and criminals and foreigners stream in
from all over Africa
to start a new life here.

Today another Afrikaner son is slaughtered
(one of more than three thousand) ,
what happens tomorrow and the next day?

[Reference: Murder on Eugene Terreblance. General condition in the country.]

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South Africa Is Also My Country

From my birth South Africa is my own country
and my people can flee to an island
but my own culture and language stays holy
although this place is not safe,
I still trust on a much higher hand,
from my birth South Africa is my own country.

From my birth South Africa is my own country
even if the struggling government gives me resistance,
do oppress me with unfair laws,
even if nothing can stop the disintegration,
even if I am not safe against the onslaught,
from my birth South Africa is my own country.

From my birth South Africa is my own country,
even if some act with effrontery against my people
I come from a noble heritage,
I am proud on my Afrikaner lineage,
even if people and buildings are set alight,
from my birth South Africa is my own country.

From my birth South Africa is my own country
with no other place I have such a deep bond
and even if here I will never have any job,
I believe in God and a Christian church,
God himself still keeps my ways intact,
from my birth South Africa is my own country.

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Have I got to close the books?

No bad weather,
murderous natives
or even the British Empire
could stop our ancestors
to make a place
their own
at the southern end
of Africa.

Till on a day
some strange people rule
that has no concept
of that which is high and holy,
and tread every thing
with time into ruins
and believe that things are better

while criminals are stealing cars,
robbing banks, murdering people
and steal just where they can
and deceivers sit in parliament
and work are reserved
for only some.

Have I now also
got to close the books,
and leave the country forever
and climb on a jet plane
and make another place
with foreigners
my own
to have a life again?

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The true view of my country: Swaziland

The true colors of my country
The true Swaziland
The true view of my country
How long have you been deceived?
How long have you received
How long have you conceived

Deceived of a peaceful country
Received about a democratic country
Conceived a developing country
This then is melody of the true Swaziland
A voice of the real Swaziland
A roar of the future of Swaziland

Around the cities of Manzini
Around the mountains of Mdzimba
Around the rivers of Shiselweni
Around the deserts of Lavumisa
You shall find the poor Swazis
You shall find the poor schools
You shall find the starving Swazis
You shall find the dying Swazis

Around the cities of Africa
Around the cities of Europe
Around the hospitals of South Africa
You shall find children of the leaders of Swaziland
You shall find brothers of the leader of Swaziland

For our education is less valued
For our hospitals are critical
For our salaries are drops
For our lives are miserable
Why my country
Why Swaziland

Houses of the leaders are a paradise
Our homesteads are falling mud and sticks
Their cars are glittering engines
Our cars were God given, ever barefooted
Food beyond measure is theirs
We rely on donations; see our water sources, fields and work places

The true image of my country
They call themselves members of parliament
Warming the chairs with not effective policies
Swazis have turned to misinterpret the duties of members of parliament
They are elected to donate food for them
Why my country
Why Swaziland.

Listen as I throw a true picture of my country
Hearken to my joyful tidings
We lead the world in HIV prevalence
We lead the world in violation of human rights
We lead the world in degrading of freedom of expression

My country is not white in color
My country is painted white
Swaziland is a dark black country
But so colorful
Colored white

Our voices are not heard in Africa
Our tears are not seen across the world
Our feelings are not noted in Africa
Our funerals are not counted in Africa
Our unjust imprisonments are not considered across the world

Are we in a different plant?
Is this Pluto

To Africa I sing this song
To the world I throw these words
We need a better Swaziland
We need a better country
A free Swaziland
A living, not leaving Swaziland
A true picture of my country
My country

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When times are bad

When times are bad
and I am with my hands in my hair
and black foreigners from all over Africa
overnight becomes citizens
and have more rights as a citizen than me
and affirmative action
puts her claws into my life
then I wonder about justice
and when merit and experience
will ever again apply

where my ancestors Joost Strydom
from Liefenshoek in the Netherlands
as a merchant seaman of the VOC
in 1678 came to Cape Town,

married his pretty well know wife
Maryna Ras who with a horse
could alone ride days long to Cape Town
with whom noblemen tried to have relationships,

where the indigenous zulu-xhosa-pondo-swazi people
are originating from a group
that during the same time
immigrated far away out of the north
from eMbo at the big lakes in central Africa
under the leadership of Nguni and later Dlamini

and then I wonder how
this country rather belongs to them
and they have to have work opportunities before me

and if you now say anything
about the new migration out of the whole of Africa
for which the country’s borders are now wide open
(in such a way that South Africans
must now get visas for Great Britain)
you are seen as xenophobic

and then there are citizens from right over Africa
who become South Africans overnight
attaining more rights than you
who forced by law
get secure job opportunities

and do people from Mozambique murder
Eugene Terreblance,
drug dealers from Nigeria
are caught by the local police

while against your will
you were forced into an army, into a war
still faithfully pay your taxes
when and where you have a job

and the current government
tries to stay in power
while Aids devours its voter numbers

and you as a white man
are despised by the current regime,
are treaded into the ground
while the country are falling to pieces
and then you pray
to Him (the God of the universe) who controls everything
to drastically intervene
rather than rousing people
for a civil war.

[Reference: VOC Verenigde Oost Indiëse companje.]

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Let South Africa be our country again

Let South Africa be our country again
and South Africans from all over the world
stream back,
to dream here like before,
to hope, to wish
of a place
not bordered of by burglar bars
where people can stay free
before God and man.

Let merit and respect be present
and people receive what they deserve
rather than expecting affirmative-action
and mercy from others
and the whole world
and like in the past
let us successfully do our own thing.

Let opportunities really exist
to be free in work,
living and association,
to study in your own language,
let us pull the teeth of the dogs
that rips others apart to rule,
of might that shatters the weak.

Let the animal inside us die
and we really become people
that does not burn each other,
crush and vituperate
and in groups jeering urge the killing on
and do not rob, but work
for the life that we have got.

Let we break the chains
of people ruling
with profit, might
and work people into the ground
and misuse others to gain prosperity.

I am the white Afrikaner that had to fight in war
and now are unemployed and hungry,
while I have a university degree.

I am the black man that without education
have to dig holes and man garbage trucks
and conclude my life in a shack.

I am the coloured that always stand between all groups
and do not know where I belong
and rather gather in gangs.

I am the South African that life
drives down the whole time
and have to pray all the time,
to know how to carry on.

l’Envoi
Still, I am the one that dream
of a country free from crime,
where everybody have equal opportunity,
where rape, corruption
and lawlessness ends
and where South Africa is our country again.

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Submission (in answer to Don Mattera)

I have seen a white old man and woman
turned onto the street,
living in cardboard boxes
with their small white dog
in the new disastrous improved South Africa,

I have seen white people taking their own lives
when black mine owners robbed them of salaries
and there was no job to get,
no living to be made
and they did this
instead of starting to beg.

I have seen white men and women
with university degrees
leaving the country
in numbers that are more than a million
to find a place to have a life
somewhere else in a foreign country,

I have waited for more than a hour queuing
at a local bank to make a cash deposit,
as a payment to someone
and the way that things are going,
with the black economic empowerment
and people not up to doing a simple job,
soon all of private industry
will be falling apart
as the government departments are doing.

I have noticed friends and family members
who were robbed, hijacked in their vehicles,
raped, tortured and killed
while the South African Police
did their very best to make a arrest
and like in all other things
are not up to it.

I know people who live in despair,
who are totally without hope
while the country’s borders
are flung wide open
to the rest of Africa
to first have a chance at a job
and their degrees and experience
in the face of this means nothing

but not one does bend
under the black heel to submission,
at the mercy of God
their lives go on…

[Reference: “Submission” by Don Mattera.]

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The Pride To Be An African

My Africa My Africa My Africa
My Africa of which everybody imitates
My Africa of which culture exceed the Greek
My Africa of which everyone is jealous of

My Africa My Africa My Africa
My Africa of enormous natural endowment
My Africa of Non-Violence
My Africa of Amorous populates

My Africa My Africa My Africa
My Africa of patriot men and women
My Africa of shelter and vintage hospitality
My Africa of great ancestral mythology

My Africa My Africa My Africa
My Africa that bore fruits of black diamonds
My Africa which is a gift to the whole world
My Africa of great leadership

My Africa My Africa My Africa
My Africa of learned youths
My Africa of a bright generation
My Africa true tradition

My Africa My Africa My Africa
My Africa of black pageant women
My Africa of strong men
My Africa from who we all hail from
For every African deserves a Nobel Prize in
Existence.

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The exiles

As an exile I live
in a country that despises me,
despises my whole nation, our language,
the colour of our skin
where the president
has opened the doors wide
to all of Africa,
and citizens from other countries
are more welcome here than us

but even if he tries
to drive me and my people
into the sea, as immigrants
right into the wide world,

like my ancestors
I have sprouted from this very earth
and there’s no other place
where I can make a living,
no other place that calls me
with the same intensity
and although work is being reserved

by the colour of skin
and my patience is running very thin
and I struggle to survive
in the situation that I am in

no highfalutin balderdash
of this country only belonging
to those who are black
is going to break my people or me

and still we trust God,
to change circumstances,
to change the mindset op people,
and if not to conquer and destroy

to make this country a place
in which all its citizens
have the opportunity
to make a living

and to be free in speech,
in dignity, in association,
in religious beliefs,
to live a life
according to your own culture and values.

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Lord, I know that even in impossibilities You are able to act

Lord, you rescued my nation
when a onslaught of thousands of Zulu’s
came at Blood River
against less than five hundred
with flintlock rifles

and when Cubans with armour under Soviet control
drew up in divisions
and a war about Africa was loosened,
we trusted You

but now the Afrikaner nation has been brought
under rule by another culture,
that does not regard You
and murder and take whatever they want
and see the lives of others and possessions
as their own.

l’Envoi
Lord God, I know that even in impossibilities
You are able to act
and ask that You remember
the covenant of our ancestors

and take note of this injustice
and that You in Your righteousness
cause this oppression to end
that the sun may shine as well
over my people.

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But how long will this peace last

The night that peace comes
torches are launched into the sky
like stars
to glide hanging to the ground
and as far as I look
I see fireworks near and far,
but how long will this peace last?

Nelson Mandela walks out of jail
and there are people cheering
and dancing from joy
and some think
that now they are totally free,
but how long will this peace last?

His rainbow nation disappears
into the naught
and although the sun still shines
work are reserved for some
and people begin to leave the country
while others from all over Africa stream in
and South Africans are jobless,
but how long will this peace last?

There are incapable people getting positions
and the country goes years back
and murder and killings
are totally out of control
and the police are powerless
to stop it,
but how long will this peace last?

The government takes legal firearms in
while crime spreads wider
and the state are trying to control lives
more and more
and corruption, fraud, rape,
murder and robbery
happens every day,
but how long will this peace last?

l’Envoi
The slaughter of black on white
and robbery are urged on
and reverse racism
talked good
and the country is in chaos
with incapables controlling it
and the dilapidation nobody can stop
but how long will this peace last
before the country
gets another hell of a war?

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Not with a machinegun, but with a pen (in answer to Breyten Breytenbach)

Not with a machinegun, but with a pen
I write this prayer
since Your might is greater than any weapon:

What am I able to tell You, Jesus Christ,
almighty Creator, God and upper Lord,
I who are only an Afrikaner in my forties,
since You know every thing, even before it happens
and there’s nothing that I can teach You.

How my country was taken away
by people who pray to ancestral spirits
(who probably are demons) ,
that a man with more than one wife
sit in the highest chair,

that I still pay taxes
when and where I have a job
and that it is difficult times
and work is very scarce
for a white man.

Would I have to tell about a government
that sings give me my machinegun
and a bullet for a Boer
and kill the farmer,
kill the white
as You know every thing.

That my people were disarmed
by the government
and by barbarians
are hacked into pieces
with panga-blades and axes
like you were sacrificed

and even in death
they are humiliated
by pulling their pants down
like You had to hang naked on the cross,

that women are raped
as if every white woman
is a sex slave
belonging to the hordes

that they still throw knucklebones
and think that it brings them invincibility
and freedom from blame.

l’Envoi
All that I am really asking
is that all of these deeds
and the things that they do, say and sing
go into the cup of Your wrath

and please help
my people and me
to serve You better
that the wide world
(like with our ancestors)
can see Your might and salvation.

[References: nie met die pen nie maar met die masjiengeweer by Breyten Breytenbach. Murder on Eugene Terreblance. Murder and violence on white people.]

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Don’t Cry For Me Africa

Don’t cry for me Africa
Because I will never let you out of my mind
I hear your voices people of Africa
I hear your cries people of Africa
I see pain in your eyes people of Africa
It is hard to describe what you people of Africa are going through
Poverty strikes you all people of Africa
Don’t cry for me Africa
Because I will keep you in my prayers people of Africa
Power to the people of Africa
People of Africa lift your spirit higher
Lord is the light and truth people of Africa
The Lord sends you a message from his heart to you people of Africa
He said because I love you
I will answer your prayers
I hear your prayers
Don’t cry for me Africa
Because you have a friend that is the Lord
People of Africa continue doing the Lords work
Make a wish people of Africa
The people of Africa are looking at the Lord face to face
Lord here is no paradise
We dream a little dream said the people of Africa to the Lord
The People of Africa Pray that the Lord will give each other strength every day
Don’t cry for me Africa
Save the people of Africa
Strengthened the people of Africa each day
Because I’ll be there in your dreams people of Africa
The people of Africa tells The Lord how much they love him
Don’t cry for me Africa
Lord comes when you are ready people of Africa
Feelings you have for your Lord People of Africa
And I know you will never let it die
Nothing but flowers the people of Africa will plant in the sea shore for the Lord
Don’t cry for me Africa
The people of Africa needs hope to heal there land
The Lord rose up on you people of Africa
Don’t cry for me Africa
My heart will go on
Once I close this door of the ship I will sail across the Atlantic Sea

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The Edge Has Been Cut (South Africa)

My Belovèd Country!
My Belovèd Love!
My Belovèd Nation!
It is not the best we perceve,
Though with attitude we assume,
Sit down and let me tell you the story of reflection,

we boost about being the best,
fool a massive number of foreign correspondence,
But we disguise reality!
that which we call Africa in the South,

I cannot even differentiate when compared with Zimbabwe,
A huge level unemployment
A fast growing element of poverty,
A lack of proper education as usuall,
And so we shine regardless,
I sit and ask my innocent logical mind,
are the economical figures of South Africa a true reflection of its definition?
if yes!
what is South Africa?
I tell there is more than just a country,
I Could be just a village,

kill me for the dark secret revealed,
a rainbow nation,
that which racism still breath its height,
corrupted and selfish politicians,

if a 9 year old boy still goes to school barefooted,
Is that freedom?
If the schools are built with broke

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African Identity Is Lost

Thank you South Africa Thank you

Today I don’t know why should I cal myself an African

South Africa I am afraid

I don’t know why you have killed people of Zimbabwe

You have exposed this mother land

It is like what Hitler was doing to the Jews

Why, Why, Why? ? ?

Yesterday we were depending on Zimbabwe for liberation struggle.

We had no fighting machines, no residences and no identity

Robert Mugabe Sacrificed all of his power, just because he wanted to see South Africa out of its previous crisis

With the lapse of 15 years?

Why don’t you look at United State of America?

United State has truly become a Model Liberal Country
Its President is a black person

It is a mixture of different people – none of which we have ever had such South African Tragic Killings

Today I am telling te whole world that I am so embarrassed
Ladies and Gentlemen: South Africa is a Xenophobic Country

If you think to pay a visit for study there: please take another option

I had never think that a person can be boiled with fire for no reason but Xenophobia

I wish you a very bad lucky
Perhaps God can give you a Tsunami over your bad reputation
South Africa does not only needs to apologize to Zimbabweans

It needs to apologies to the whole world
It needs to apologies to the whole Africa country
It need to apologies to God himself
It need to apologies to itself for having lost consciousness
I want to warn South Africa with one thing
Fire is not the end of the world
It is not to terminate the Zimbabweans by burning them alive
God has always been there before the fire
I remember when the King ordered fire to kill three men in the bible
God came out to be a shield
Just like he protect people from the lions he can be an answer to what South Africans have done to Zimbabweans
It is like there is absolutely nothing happened to all over the country
Nobody is feeling the sense of pity about these people
They are being treated as the dead dogs
Eve the policies who were there to mediate seem to smile, during event.

The religious groups who are always regarded as holy have not even gathered to express words of regret not only to Zimbabweans but to God himself.

I don’t know which country I can run to
Because I can hear the anger of Gods –talking to me
I wish I can fly away because the pain that South Africa will feel is more that the fire
I am not talking about a joke, I am talking about god
Africa what you have done is to challenge the Lord himself
Since God is able to protect a person that people are playing with
What about those South African who have decided to kill people the image of God himself.

I don’t know: but I think it will be better to be at Zimbabwean Starvation that to be at tragic South Africa
Don’t you remember what happened when people steal the covenant of God at Middle East Countries?
I am yours and you are not mine
No we are not the same
I am not xenophobic
I believe the extended hand is more blessed with receiving hand
I reconcile the process of giving the poor Zimbabwean the food they deserve
No I am an African; It won’t be Africa to me to kill another African
I cannot stop thinking about this
I have several friends and collogues that are coming from Zimbabwe
I am shame of myself
I don’t know what kind of friendship I have with them if my Brothers are killing them
I don’t know whether I will see the in future because of these continuous killings

Thank you South Africa thank you
I did not realize that you have lost the covenant of God
I don’t know whether you are prepared for God’s reaction

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Memory to Eugène Terreblancé at Rooigrond prison

This government slammed a jail door behind you,
caged you in like a animal, locked you behind bars
in the prison at Rooigrond;
when this government took your freedom
a potted plant was your biggest treasure
and the grace that you found on your knees
from the almighty Lord God

and between the prisoners with tin plates,
who were continuously making a ruckus,
they tried to devour your humanity.

In the mornings they gave you porridge,
before prison doors slammed behind you,
in the afternoons again porridge and for dinner pale soup;
but still you are walking through my thoughts,

your splendid poems turn and whirl in my mind
as if they are still keeping you alive
and this government
does not hear the cock crowing three times,
the Son of God was also betrayed and sold.

The barbarians that slaughtered you with pangas
already got bail,
(the one as a child is free from prosecution)
and in a few days your killers
(from Mozambique who brought disorder here)
will probably walk free as heroes into the streets.

By some of your own people despised
you were actually right, your own blood that flowed;
on the hands of black people,
stays proof of it eternally

l’Envoi
and somehow the blacks in our country
has totally lost their senses,
where they rob and decimate
the Afrikaner people and Afrikaner farmers.

[Reference: Rooigrondtronk (Rooigrond prison) by Eugène Terreblancé.]

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Cry my beloved SOUTH AFRICA

Cry My Beloved Country
When Tragedy Strikes
When Sorrow Prevails
And NATURE Smite you So Hard
All Bowing Heads

Be yourself to the Rest of us
My beloved Country 'South Africa'

Don't compromise with NAGATIVE thoughts
By allowing anger to rule you
And your Emotions to control you
Stay stable and Positive
Smile when you meet ultimate challenges
To make you STRONG

Don't Rebuke Innocent dust
And Hold your CRASHES on sun
A Joy of mankind is KIND
Be yourself to the rest of us

My beloved country 'South Africa'
I know you will make it

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Africa We Stand Up For You

When they ask you tell them you are from Africa.
Africa and nowhere else.
Africa has made you
Africa has made me;
It is time to make Africa.
So Mother Africa
Do not be in haste.
Your sons and daughters
Still live.
They live you rather than leave you.
Once perched we will fly.
Fly to you and not from you.
Your songs of praise
Will always be sung unrestrained.
You are Beautiful, Africa.
Africa you will never go on your knees.
We were imprisoned,
We were exported,
We were whipped in those days,
We went on our knees,
But it was not for a lack of hope
Or a plea of submission on our part.
Rather, our kneeling was to take
Courage from the brown earth,
Your Symbol-In-Common.
Like the Saviour among thieves on the cross,
Africa will be the Lighthouse to the world.
Diop may have died at thirty-three,
Left behind only twenty-two poems,
But Africa we say this to you:
More Diops will rise.
And even live to a Senghor.
Yes, Africa, do not be in haste.
Your children are still Alive.
And no death can ever kill Us.

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A statesman: then and now

He stands on the podium
with his hat
in his hand
pressed against his chest

on the border with Angola
in his country
(as he still rules
over South West Africa)

and his bare head shines
under the bright Africa sun
where he himself was born

and Ratel armoured cars,
tanks, rocket launchers
and artillery drive past in convoys
back from Angola
to get a salute from him.

He stands like a giant
alone against dark Africa
will nuclear devices
waiting ready in bombs

and missiles
for ballistic purposes
are being manufactured.

Later lump after lump
of sand
falls down in his grave
while a lost journalist
runs for photos around it

and he doesn’t any more know
what is happening
in his own country
and about thunderbolts
that falls from everywhere
on his people

and rumble ominous
above his grave,
not even about water flowing
above him in a rain stream
and every sunrise
that without equal
unfolds above him

and worms gnawing
patiently on his body
since every thing
fades for him to nothing.

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Your name will not carry another meaning for me

Your name will not carry another meaning for me
like people see you in foreign countries,
as a place where people serve criminal kings
and even if they throw the South away and it becomes just Africa

with foreigners streaming in, I do not go out to hurt you,
even if we feel that we deserve a better country.
Your name will not carry another meaning for me
like people see you in foreign countries,

as a place where we have to ask God for help
in injustice, revolt and a loss of national dignity
where white people by force loose their own possessions
because I am born to you like my ancestors, my South Africa.
Your name will not carry another meaning for me.

poem by Gert StrydomReport problemRelated quotes
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Now that you want to go away

For generations blood flowed,
and my ancestors fought
for this country to be their own
and it was asked from me
to carry a machinegun.

Still my country was given away
and opportunities with it
and what belongs to me,
robbers claim as their own
without the police trying to stop them.

My friends have left and gone into the world
and are far away from me
that still stays in South Africa
and now you my darling
also want to go away
to another place
that looks much better to you.

Maybe it will be much better
to read the newspaper somewhere else,
to paint brush strokes,
to compose music
and to play the piano and guitar
and to say your thoughts in poems
at another place,
but is it asking too much
that merit prevail for everyone
and to have my country back again?

poem by Gert StrydomReport problemRelated quotes
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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