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I stand by the gate
School’s out Smoke fills the location
Tears come to my eyes
I wipe them away
I walk into the kitchen
To see my mother’s
Black hard-washing hands
A forceful smile from
A tired face
We sit and have supper
I pick up a picture of My father and look
My mother turns away
Tries to hide
My father left my mother
In his arms
He is roughly separated
From her
The van pulls away
Mother watches bravely enough
I as a child do
Not understand
My heart aches
How I long to see my father
At least to hold his hand
And comfort him
Or at least to tell him
He’ll be back some day.
This poem appears in the anthology Malibongwe: Poems from the struggle by ANC women, which after being banned in South Africa, occupies its rightful intellectual and creative space for the first time in four decades.
