NIGHTFALL IN SOWETO – OSWALD MBUYISENI MTSHALI

NIGHTFALL IN SOWETO

Nightfall comes like a dreaded disease

seeping through the pores

of a healthy body

and ravaging it beyond repair.

A murderer's hand

lurking in the shadows,

clasping the dagger

strikes down the helpless victim

I am the victim.

I am slaughtered every night in the streets

I am cornered by the fear

gnawing at my timid heart;

In my helplessness, I languish.

Man has ceased to be man

Man has become beast

man has become prey.

I am the quarry to be run down

by the marauding beast let loose

by cruel nightfall from his cage of death.

Where is my refuge?

Where am I safe?

Not in my matchbox house

where I barricade myself against nightfall

I tremble at his crunching footsteps,

I quake at his deafening knock at the door

Open Up!  he barks like a rabid dog.

Nightfall Nightfall!

Why were you ever created?

Why can't it be daytime?

Daytime forevermore?

OSWALD MBUYISENI MTSHALI

Image from the Soweto Uprising June 16, 1976

Soweto Stadium during 2010 World cup in South Africa

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