Fences of Days Gone By, Walls of Days to Come

My common sense was Katlehong’s broken lens

Smug as I watched uTamkhulu and his friends

Jest and dig pole size holes for our fence

Suddenly loose lipped voices turn tense

“Food or freedom?” said an all too familiar voice

Sarcastic, mocking the suggestion of choice

The conversation lost amity, the jest lost poise

My eyes shot up and away from the toys

Searching wiser faces for a wrinkle of rejection

Fold after fold of their skin contorting in concession

“The road to hell is paved with good intentions”

“Govern, wealth, land, rights, education;” jargon that dropped my attention

Years later as I renovate my childhood home

I swap the fence out for a wall of stone

Eyes darting back and forth, tv and phone 

The news mourns Iranian souls… soil… oil?

My bank transactions must’ve felt the shockwave

Two too many O’s contort my face

Oil may move slow but its price is a relentless pace

And now I think back to that particular day

Unemployment, GBV, ANC, charts, numbers numbers numbers

Fact after fact points to uTamkhulu’s cynicism being far from blunder

Conservatism always was hailed as the natural conclusion of life

This is good, this is fine, I feel great, this is right

Today as I examine the cracks in my wall

I think back to that fence in admiration and awe

Transparency, what was once an irredeemable flaw

I remember as a convenient floor

For conversations between uTamkhulu and passersby

My wall is too private and high

Closed from and to the outside 

Something’s very wrong with mine

uTamkhulu built his fence at the tail end of his life

This wall marked the beginning of mine

Distrust and despair is no good place to start

So by the end of the day I ripped it apart

As I walk around the yard envisioning my next wall

I think back to that day, to a rebuttal I recall 

“When the so-called civil unrest in Thokoza broke all of us fought 

Neither side fighting solely to keep what we already had but also for the endless possibilities of what we could have in the future 

Albeit taking longer than we had originally thought 

These kids – pointing in my direction – are the ones who will inherit the world we referred to as the future”

If this wall could talk I pray it’d remind countless generations to dream