Mongane Wally Serote – Poems

Heat and Sweat (1975)

(for sisters and brothers who may be weary)

so you keep looking back

if you did not listen when the past was breathing
the present erases your name
child don’t let laughter from insane strangers snatch our faces
the present is surprised at our songs
it is shocked that we still walk the streets the way we do
lost as we are
torn and bewildered by the sounds of our names
it is surprised that though the sight of our eyes staggers
and though the gait of our shadows seems to limp
we still put brick on brick and tell our children stories
so you keep looking back
even when the darkness is so thick it could touch your eyeballs
even when the darkness is such a huge space
ready with an insatiable thirst, swallowing, and even ready still to swallow
the last red drop that trickles still from your little heart,
don’t you hear the songs
they can live in the present if we let them
these songs have a prowess of our mother’s back
and the eloquence of our grandmother's foresight
about the time that never was
and the earth whose rhythm is an intoxicated dizziness
child
feel the wall while you walk and hold, hold
glue your eye into the distance and keep walking
move, child, move
if we don’t get there
nobody must . . .

1
WHEN LIGHTS GO OUT

(for some who are in south african jails)

1
it is with the shadows of night
when the sun comes and goes
the moon comes and goes
that we ask, in weary voices, which fall into the depth of the gulf:
how does it feel to be you
watching and waiting
to feel the heavy weight of every minute come followed by another
and nothing
even everything written in blood
says nothing about how we could wake up tomorrow and build a day

2
your eyelids shut, if they ever do,
and the memories of those you knew,
flood behind the darkness of closed eyelids
spiralling into patterns of pain
and you alone know that once there were hopes
that once the footsteps of the people sounded on the horizon
and now
silence strides across the sky
where the sun sweats, proclaiming a wish to rest

3
can we tell you
you the children of a long hour a long day a long night
that hope never befriends fools
yes
time, in absolute eloquence, can erase our faces
remember sharpville?
in those days, violence and disaster were articulate
and now
today you watch and wait

4
so one day hope begins to walk again
it whispers
about the twisted corpses that we saw
sprawled across the streets on this knowledgeable earth
the tears
the blood
the memory
and the knowledge, which was born
by every heavy minute that we carried

2
across a wilderness, where there were no paths
where screams echoed, as if never to stop
it is when there is no hope, that hope begins to walk again
yet
like we said
hope never befriends fools

5
since we have eyes to see
ears
and fingers to touch
only if we know how, can we harness time –
can you hear the footsteps

3
4