Walking On Eggshells Poem by Phillip Nine Mafunga

I was telling a sad story
A windy day from the back of a lorry
So bumpy was the road to no glory
Yet none seemed to want to hear the parts so gory
Juneteenth, a big YES: Gukurahundi, a sure NO!

There is decay in the season of purity
Sonorous voices in animated impunity
Drowning the sobs of the victims in the community
A history littered with corpses deprived of an everlasting serenity
Whose children are facing great depravity!

I was yelling it from the top of my voice, even
My words splintered into a smithereens haven
Drowned in the howls of the nation's four winded tavern
A nation drenched in blooded shame; truth telling the only lantern
I am walking on eggshells for demanding justice: I know the pattern!
19 June 2021