Three Poems
by Rethabile Masilo
PASSING
There isn't any beating of the drums
After the long subsiding ray
When like a cruel master darkness comes.
Let the town criers hasten to convey
Outright this message to kingdoms.
Invite well-wishing folks to go away.
Let the menace rise as the heart succumbs
Deeper still, and let silence slay
You with meaning beyond the sound of psalms.
But if no-one will listen or obey,
Wind the clocks, swing the pendulums,
And let that message seal the stillborn day.
MOMENTS
To heroic hearts when disaster is there
comes a moment of conviction, at length,
to counter with a measure of its strength
the promise of dilemma in the air.
Having honoured the urge to put on earth
but for an instant, only to flit
farther with a push once again as it
rapidly collects itself going forth,
albeit with nothing specific to prove
as friendship conquers the foe, or like dawn
at the prospect of daylight coming on--
suddenly, out of little moments you've
crossed along the rugged road looms, one day,
the prospect of life in a quite new way.
PLEA
Whether hell or nirvana has been found
After the broken contract, not more else
Matters. All is finished and complete
As the light disappears into the ground.
Listen, but let this be my only plea,
I hold a secret in this force that grips
Me in triumph as well as in defeat.
Strike me with your weapon now--I am free.
Break the fabric of my soul apart
O enemy, till your apocalypse
Comes down like thunder on a mountain top.
Your thousand blows will not possess my heart.
And all around the people will agree
That I have come to terms with destiny.
END
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