Poetry Monday: "ABCs"

by Pa Rock
Poetry Appreciator

One day last week I experienced a National Public Radio "driveway moment," where I became so wrapped up in a story that was airing that I could not get out of the car. Fortunately, I was out in traffic heading to work and had no need to get out of the car!

The radio story that caught my attention was a piece on a young South African poet by the name of Lebo Mashile. Ms. Mashile was actually born in the United States to black South African exiles, but she and her parents returned to their native land when she was sixteen. The poet had a forceful story, but it wasn't her story that captivated me - it was her poetry. As I listened to Lebo Mashile reading one of her poems, I was transfixed. Her words were beautiful, and they flowed with great power and passion.

A few of Lebo Mashile's poems can be found on the Internet, but she has apparently not published a collection at this time - at least there is not one available on Amazon.com. When she does publish, I plan to be an early purchaser - because she is very, very good.

Trivia: Lebo Mashile had the small part of Odette in the movie "Hotel Rwanda."

Below is one example of her poetry:

ABCs
by Lebo Mashile

It takes just 26 letters to create a universe
The world is dismantled and then reassembled
Through the lens of a pen and verse
I have lost myself in books
And then found myself in words
Living in a world without imagination
I can think of no fate that is worse

I’ve walked through the lives of individuals
Whose eyes I’ve never known
I’ve been to cities and villages and country sides
Whose skies, to me, have never been shown
It was in this solitary cell
That my greatest strength was honed
I saw that my mind was just a shell
And it’s abyss simply a hole
And the hell of a heaving heavy heart
Is still my friend
Every story has its place
And history never ends

The writer is an architect God child at play
On a canvass of memories
She lies naked between the covers
Her own lover
Her own worst enemy
Navigating between extremes
She is both the judge and the judged
The vile despised and attacked
The unashamedly beloved
The unassuming friend who’ll tell your business
When you’re not in sight
She pulls commotion out of stillness
In the cavern of the night

And South Africa is a fractured mirror
A paradox of schizophrenic selves
Who don’t talk to one another
Who fear each other
Who revere each other
Who loathe
And pretend
And try to blend in
With each other

And this is the time when you can become
The greatest substance of your dreams
Unless you live in a shack
And don’t speak English
And don’t know what this poem means
Tell me how it’s possible for people
Who walk on gold to not know how to read
Tell me how publishers who’ll never taste their tongues
Can comprehend the words that these people need
Because they’ve never been scared of stories
The ones who uttered the very first
The ones who’ll hand them to their children
Calling out the rivers of their self worth
The ones who’ll write a narrative in the ear
But who won’t call the ear a page
The ones who’ll rhyme without pens
And perform without a stage

I don’t have all the answers
I’m just a colonized African
Who breaks down the Queen’s English
Until Sesotho understands it
Still I’m compelled by those
Who may never inhabit my language
I wonder if trials and translations
Could help them to traverse my landscape

South Africa is an old fashioned mutt
Who knows how to sing
And knows even better how to cuss
Who knows how to piece together prayers
When she’s about to run out of luck
Who knows how to laugh real hard
When the tears have run her into a rut
Who knows that race is a farce
Because when the light’s are off
Every body’s fucked
And when the welts and wounds
Demand healing salve
Words are just enough