People are chewing the country’s national flag.
The rain does not bow onto the land.
They have turned water to wine.
The sun refuses to rise.
They have crucified Thomas Edison.
The country is plunged in darkness.
Poor people’s shouts of Edison’s resurrection quake the whole country.
The face of first people’s president peeks through the clouds.
With his ever-smiling face speaks tough to kleptocracy:
Never, never and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one by another.
The coffin carrying the figure of a democratic despot is walking on the shoulders of the rioters, scurrying to bury the present and plant the stolen future.
The golden future’s banner is fluttering
up and down the skyline.
Nixon Mateulah was born in Lilongwe in Malawi and moved to South Africa in 1996. Running Home is a fictional memoir based on his experiences when arriving from Malawi in South Africa during the early years of the South African democracy. He has published a number of short stories and poems in various online and print publications.
