I mourn you still

I mourn you still

Your bones lie white

on the plains; buried under sand;

fossilized in stone –

that’s how I know you were here.

*

Your prints are everywhere I look:

In  caves; and on the beaches;

In the faces of the people I know.

They’re my brothers – the children of my sisters –

they’re blood of my blood, too.

*

 I know you are here:

In the whispers through the reeds;

In the sounds of the bow;

In the dark of the caves.

*

When the eland suddenly looks up,

 the chase is on over the dunes,

While the mothers wait,

babies in their arms, they wait

for men to come back … to come back … to come …

*

In the quiet of the night:

captured souls in chains,

silently they wait; they wait …

then death, by roar and smoke,

takes them to the clouds above the sky,

while mothers wait … and babies wait …

till the new dawn breaks –

and finds them: slaves to white masters.

*

I mourn you still, my parents.

 How were you supposed to know?

 November 2021