All poems from "A Goodbye to My Little Troubles"

Diluted Existence

To degrade like bad cadence
To fail to act in accordance
To lead a diluted existence
Tendencies to disobey the voices
To disaffirm the voice of instinct
To render existence more succinct
Instinct is better than the mind
Instinct is always as divined
Its path never to be confined
Capable of maternal instincts
Unable to defend her precincts
Devoid of the means of defense
Unable to fulfill the innermost
Well-being of the seal diminishing
Predator without fear advancing
To mystify by design of creation
To arrest the fluidity of reason
Like slow-moving molasses betrayed
Contained in barrels of apartheid

Contextual Commentary

Despite the fact that the author worships brain power in the true sense of the word, he laments the fact that North Americans are conditioned by their society to disobey their gut feelings. The opposite case is the seal that listens and cherishes her gut feelings but is unable to carry out some of her deepest wishes. During the writing of this literary piece, the author had fallen on hard times and was forced to reevaluate his life. It appeared the gods and goddesses of the beautiful motherland had forced the author to undergo a humbling experience in order to purify him in the fire of adversity for a sacred mission that lay ahead.

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The Honourable Mary Foster

When I think of Mary Foster
Unafraid of explosive canister
I tremble near a flaxen goddess
Feisty woman never to regress
To dissent despite killer ballistic
To venture like resilient elastic
To embrace the cause of those from afar
To embrace them even though it will scar
To prefer influence of simplicity
To disrelish affluence of the city
To be a human shield in Baghdad
To be averse to the tanks that rolled
To be honourable like Mary Foster
To be unstoppable coming from afar
To reject happiness of a marionette
To share the pain of South Sudan
To honour them of the Ramadan
A warrior blonde despite Canadian
Perseverance of beauty and brain
To gravitate to the incisive mind
Backing away from the slimy kind

Contextual Commentary

Dedicated to the most pleasant human being, Mary Foster of Ottawa, Canada. The author met Mary Foster in Ottawa when she was working on a project to celebrate Africa Refugee Day, together with Nanda Na Champassak (originally from Cambodia) of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, and Celina Tuttle. No one had celebrated Africa Refugee Day before. Mary Foster brought together artists and others from South Sudan. When the US President, Mr. George Bush, declared war on Iraq on March 19th 2003 and sent troops to invade that independent country to depose President Saddam Hussein (a former friend of his father who was a CIA Director before Mr. Ronald Reagan became President of the USA in 1981), Mary Foster decided she was going to Iraq to be a human shield in defence of the Iraqi people.

Her comrades in the Iraq Peace Team (IPT), Lisa Ndejuru and Zehira Houfani, were together in Iraq while the Americans and Britons waged an immoral war against the Iraqi people. The author pays tribute to this venerable female to whom the Canadian people should accord a special honour. This is possible, since an impressive athlete, Elvis Stojko, who failed to win the gold medal in one of the skating competitions, was welcomed home with a medal made out of Canadian people’s jewelry. The country owes a debt to this beautiful blonde woman who acted as Canada’s ambassador of non-aggression, freedom and human dignity.

Sisters Must Arise

Gutsy sisters must arise
To break chains at sunrise
The warrior Manthatisi
At great risk defended
Their birthright appended
Scorched like wild game
By a fearful brutal flame
A fiery chauvinist master
Extinguishable by a cluster
A battalion of the sisters
Mantsopa prophesied
Providence complied
Impregnable force collective
Indomitable battalion assertive
To douse the flame that subdues
To almost extinguish for good
Fragile existence at childhood
We are grateful to Pontsho Nkala
For detaching the claws from the boy
Strength in numbers like sapphire
Undeterred by adversity to aspire
If sisters fail to be inspired
By strength in their numbers
To end misery from the sexist
To assert their birthright to exist
Submissive appeasement to appeal
Will render defenceless like a seal

Contextual Commentary

In 1984 in Phuthaditjhaba a racist and sexist industrialist refused to pay the wages of the African women who had worked for him. Under the apartheid system there was no protection for the African women workers. The author covered the story for the Pinnacle newspaper of QwaQwa. These women were so many they were like a battalion but, unlike the battalion, they seemingly were unaware of their collective might. After writing about these women workers the author was served with a libel lawsuit by the lawyers of the industrialist. The author, having studied media law as part of Journalism studies, refused to budge and the lawyers backed off.