Yet Am Still Smiling Poem by Phillip Nine Mafunga

Evil walls encircle me; pitch darkness punctuated by an eerie quiet
Blood stained rivers breaking their banks all around me
Sky so sullen and sulky looking
There I am swimming skin deep in the scum of history
With beady eyes gawking at me from a tomorrow so uncertain
Demonic whistles heard in the windy youthfulness of the today
In public, they lynch my blackness
In the pages of the book, they blackout my beauty
In the sands of time, my influence they blow away
With the flames of hate, they scrub me clean of my self-consciousness
I walk their capitals with a face sooted in scorn
Yet Mosi-oa-Tunya roars; cascades of anger into the bottomless gorge below
With smoky sprays that cool my ascent to a life so bright
Whose clouds have defied the dictates of the local climate!
PHILLIP NINE MAFUNGA
2 July 2020