Poetry | Page 87 | The Common

New Country

October 1, 2012 Issue 04, Issue 04 Poetry, Poetry

By MXOLISI NYEZWA

new country
towards you
i breathe slowly
towards your
self-demeaning
humour

San People

October 1, 2012 Issue 04, Issue 04 Poetry, Poetry

By MXOLISI NYEZWA

i’m linking things i’m beginning to see
the length of this organ, my dying land
all the mistakes my god has learned

City

October 1, 2012 Issue 04, Issue 04 Poetry, Poetry

By MXOLISI NYEZWA

i have lived to discover a city, an open road,
a bucket of milk, and two gentle doves.
i have discovered in myself
two frightened birds with miles of dirt road to fly.

in the forest hills spiders and black dogs clamoured.
in the corpses of yellow flowers
a rainbow spun across a darkened sky.

i lived in a street where girls with dark eyes sang,
birds with their wings welcomed a harsh rain.

Mxolisi Nyezwa is founder and editor of Kotaz, now in its fourteenth year.

Click here to purchase Issue 04

Fog

October 1, 2012 Issue 04, Issue 04 Poetry, Poetry

By RUSTUM KOZAIN

4 a.m. Streets under fog. Streetlights gone.
Except a few down the road
and the moon’s halo
easily obscured by a plume of breath

This is the Sea

October 1, 2012 Issue 04, Issue 04 Poetry, Poetry

By RUSTUM KOZAIN

(After a photograph by Victor Dlamini)

There is that sea, deep sometimes
as the heart at dusk,
the shine on its face soon to fade.
There is that caravel drifting in
and all it brings: a load of good
and the bad unreckoned by the quartermaster.

If Only the Tswanas Could Dance

October 1, 2012 Issue 04, Issue 04 Poetry, Poetry

By LESEGO RAMPOLOKENG

from Longo Dongoa & the Pocket Crucified

We asked for social overhaul  Got a power-hall roll-CALL
& the world coming down to play ball
On the site of our umbilical burial
tick it off the life-wreck list